Luxury watch salesman stole £1.4m of uninsured jewelery in robbery attack and ‘offered life savings’ to employer before killing himself, court heard

A luxury watch salesman committed suicide just hours after being accused of “not putting up a good fight” when his shop was robbed of a designer watch worth £1.4 million, a court heard today. I was disappointed.

Salesman Oliver White, 27, said two men stole “very expensive” and “uninsured” watches, including a £30,000 Rolex Sky-Dweller, from 247 Kettle in Richmond, west London. During that time, he was strangled and bound with zip ties. May 25th last year.

The next day, he was summoned to an “intense” meeting with the store’s owners (his “friends” Conor Thornton and Joe Reilly) and another investor, where they discovered that the “hard-working” store manager He hinted that he was “involved in some way” in the robbery.

Devastated, Ms White felt she had “somehow let others down” and transferred the maximum amount she had saved, £14,000, to 247 Kettles shortly before taking her own life, the court heard.

Edward Brown, prosecuting, told the jury: “This robbery obviously involved a huge loss and meant the watch was not insured. This was similar to previous robberies in 2020. Because of the robbery, insurance was virtually impossible. Either you couldn’t actually get insurance or the premiums were too high.” It was prohibitively expensive.

“It must have been a pretty intense meeting.

‘he [Oliver White] His plan was to tell his girlfriend that during a meeting he had been accused by the other man of not putting up a good enough fight, but apparently the others, his friends, did not agree with this. is! This devastated him.

“He went missing in the latter part of May 26, in fact not long after he sent the money, which was around £14,000.” [to 247 Kettles].

“Calls to him went unanswered and messages went unanswered.

“His family and friends were very worried and his body was discovered by a friend that evening. He had taken his own life.”

Mr Brown told the court that detectives investigating the £1.4m heist had cleared the manager of any involvement, saying: “We found nothing in the evidence that would even raise the suspicion that Oliver White was involved in any way. It was not done.”

Furthermore, “as a person he [Oliver White] He always took good care of his money, never borrowed money, never borrowed money, never gambled, paid his credit card bills on time, paid his pension — strange to his money problems. There wasn’t even a trade–nothing.

“He worked very hard and always gave his all when he felt it was needed.”

At the start of the trial, the jury found that Junior Qunu, 29, of Mitcham, south London, and Mannix Pedro, 37, of Cobham, Surrey, were among at least five people who conspired to rob a £1.4 million designer watch. He was told that he was among the men. Something that has never been recovered.

Three of the accused fled the country immediately after the attack while police sought their arrest as accomplices, and claim they are still at large overseas.

In a statement to police after the May 25 robbery, Mr White said the attackers had visited the store two days earlier on the pretext of looking at the clock, and had made a second appointment on the day of the robbery. Ta.

He had a tray of watches ready for them to see before they began to ‘lunge’ at him and ‘grab the watches’.

He told police how his hands were pinned to his chest, tied with zip ties and placed in a “headlock” that left “red marks” on his neck.

He said there was “nothing that made me suspect anything was going to happen.” Their body language was completely relaxed.

‘[But] After a few minutes, they stood up and started picking up their watches.

“They stole about 30 watches while I was tied up.”

Yesterday, jurors were shown shocking CCTV footage of the raid unfolding.

It revealed how Mr Qunu calmly inspected a highly valuable watch before his accomplice reached over the desk and attacked Mr White.

The film showed the manager’s wrists and ankles bound with cable ties before the robbers quietly left the store, “packing the watch up to the muzzle.”

The jury was told that Mr Qunu and Mr Pedro played a key “role” in the robbery.

The court heard the gang began planning the attack three months before the robbery, stealing an Audi 3 to use as a “getaway car” and buying an Audi A5 to use as a “transfer car”. They also obtained a complete inventory of inventory held at 247 Kettles prior to the raid.

Mr Brown told the court: “They took part in the conspiracy in a variety of roles. Mr Qunu was on the premises to assist.” [another man] In the robbery itself, Pedro helped plan and organize the robbery and subsequent spiriting away of the stolen watch.

“Of course, only if the watch is spirited away can you sell it and split the proceeds, which is the purpose of the robbery, after all.

“You’ll want to keep in mind the value of the watch heist, £1.38 million. You might be surprised at the value of each individual watch, but in any case, this was a large cache of extremely valuable watches. And it won’t just be given away.”

The jury found that the store’s name, “247 Kettles,” refers to a Cockney rhyming slang term for watch, which rhymes with “fob,” an old-fashioned word for a pocket watch, “kettle and hob.” I was told that it comes from the term. .

The trial continues.