£1.4 million jewellery shop heist that drove manager to suicide ‘was staged’

A £1.4 million heist at a luxury jewellery store was an inside job as part of an insurance scam and ‘everyone was consenting’, one of the accused robbers has told jurors.

Junior Kunu, 30, and Mannix Pedro, 37, are charged with conspiring with others to carry out the raid that saw more than 70 luxury watches stolen from the 247 Kettles shop in Richmond, south-west London, on May 25 last year.

Office manager Oliver White, 27, was so ‘devastated’ by the robbery he killed himself the next day, Woolwich Crown Court has heard.

But giving evidence today, Kunu repeatedly insisted: ‘This was not a robbery, this was staged.’

He claimed he was told he would be paid £5,000 for putting watches into a bag. Putting Mr White in a headlock and binding him with cable ties was all part of ‘the role play’, he added.

‘I knew that I was going to take part in a staged robbery where everyone was consenting,’ Kunu said.

‘I knew that the person in the shop was going to comply. I knew that I was going to put watches in the bag, and I had to do nothing else.’

Two other men said to have been involved – Michael Ashman and Kyle Bowrage – are still at large, having fled abroad soon after May 25.

Kunu claimed Bowrage had told him what was going to happen and that it all went according to plan.

‘He told me that Oliver White was going to comply, he complied,’ he said. ‘He told me that police was not going to get called, they didn’t get called.

‘He told me that he (Mr White) wasn’t going to press the panic button or anything and he didn’t.

‘At one point Bowrage was on one side and Oliver White was by himself. If this was a real-life robbery he would have pressed the panic button, he would have screamed or kicked up a fuss.

‘Everything Kyle Bowrage told me happened to the exact tee.’

He said ‘it would have been different’ if Mr White had not consented.

‘He would have pressed the panic button,’ Kunu told the court.

‘We walked out of that place, we didn’t run. There wasn’t a car outside.

‘We walked to where the car was… if this was a robbery the car would have been outside, we would have run out.

‘This was, to my belief, an insurance scam. But I didn’t know that.’

Jurors previously heard that Mr White was put in a headlock and tied up while the watches were stolen.

Kunu said the actions, including using cable ties on Mr White, was part of ‘the role play’ to ‘make the whole thing look real’.

‘It was a staged robbery, so I believed that it was consented,’ Kunu said. ‘If I actually believed that this was a robbery I would have never been there.

‘If I actually believed that he (Mr White) was uncomfortable or he looked like he was genuinely really struggling, this would have been completely different.’

The court heard that Kunu had received a call from a ‘Mr X’ asking him to be involved in the ‘staged robbery’.

The defendant refused to name the caller, citing concerns over his own safety and the safety of his family.

Asked why he was chosen, Kunu told jurors: ‘Because prior to that I have had conversations with X and I told him that I was financially struggling.

‘He knew that I needed money and I feel like he knew that I was just… I’m naive. He knew that I was naive.

‘He said I was going to partake in staged robbery and all I had to do was put watches in a bag. I asked him a number of questions and he just said everyone was consenting to the staged robbery, that nothing bad was going to happen.’

He accepted he was – ‘at most’ – a part of a ‘conspiracy to steal’, but later agreed with the prosecution suggestion that the incident was ‘always going to involve violence or the threat of violence potentially’, answering: ‘I guess so.’

He denied making his explanations up.

Connor Thornton, the store’s co-owner, denied believing the incident was an ‘inside job’ when he gave evidence last week, while Mr White’s mother, Amy Keane, described him as a ‘really hardworking young man’ who was ‘devastated by the robbery’.

Woolwich Crown Court previously heard that Mr White tried to transfer £14,000 of his own savings to his bosses after the robbery.

The court also heard 247 Kettles had CCTV, panic buttons and magnetic locking doors for security measures as well as a smoke system, and mainly sold ‘high-end’ Rolex models ranging from £3,000 to £70,000.

The prosecution alleges the defendants played different roles in the plot, with Kunu having entered the premises to carry out the robbery, while Pedro, who did not attend the shop on May 25, was ‘closely involved in the planning and execution’.

Pedro, of Cobham, Surrey, and Kunu, of Mitcham, south-west London, deny the charges.

None of the watches have been recovered, the court has heard.

The trial continues.

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