An alleged robber believed a £1.1million watch heist which led to a salesman taking his own life was ‘an inside job’, a court heard today.

Kyle Mehmet, 40, said he did not make a penny from the raid in Richmond on May 25 last year, adding that he only joined in because he owed gangsters £190,000.

He vanished to Turkey with his wife and children after the heist before ‘sneaking’ back into the UK via Ireland, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Salesman Oliver White, 27, who was accused of not resisting the raiders by the store’s owners in a tense meeting a day after the heist, took his own life hours later.

He was found dead by a friend in woods near Shepperton where he played as a boy.

Mehmet had held Mr White in a headlock while Junior Kunu, 31, swiped the watches, including a Rolex Sky Dweller from 247 Kettles on Kew Road, the court heard.

Michael Holmes, 34, is said to have been part of an aborted robbery at the shop two days earlier.

Mehmet was later arrested and has told the court he believed he was acting as ‘muscle’ for an ‘inside job.’

However at the trial today, Mehmet was accused of telling a ‘pack of lies’ as he was cross-examined by prosecutors.

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Kyle Mehmet (front) and Junior Kunu (back) are seen during the heist at the jewellery store in Richmond

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Oliver White, who was working in the jewellery store at the time of the robbery, was restrained with cable ties and held in a headlock

Ed Brown KC asked: ‘And when you agreed to participate in the crime, did you think it was going to be a robbery, or did you think it was an inside job – in other words, a theft?’

Mehmet answered: ‘At the start he said it was a robbery, but the information he gave me made me believe it was an inside works, yeah, an inside job.’

The 40-year-old was asked about an aborted robbery of 247 Kettles that took place on 23 May, two days before the eventual heist.

‘Do you know the difference between robbery and theft?’ Mr Brown asked.

‘Yeah, I believe so, yeah,’ Mehmet replied.

Mr Brown asked him: ‘By the 23, or on the 23, were you expecting to have to use violence or the threat of violence or force to be able to take the watches?’

‘No, he said it weren’t going to be a problem – I didn’t need no knife, no gun, I didn’t need to hurt the person – it wouldn’t be a problem,’ said Mehmet.

He later asked Mehmet about him meeting up with Mannix Pedro, 38, who helped plan the raid and supplied a stolen Audi used as getaway car.

‘What did you think Pedro, your associate, had to do with all this robbery, conspiracy to rob?’

‘I didn’t know he had a role at that time or if he didn’t have anything to do with it, I didn’t even know if he did,’ Mehmet told jurors.

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The total value of the watches that were taken was more than £1,160,000 and none have been recovered, the court heard

‘What did you think you were doing at his address?’, Mr Brown continued.

‘I went to Woking to meet the firm, met him and got into the car with a bag of watches’, Mehmet said.

Mr Brown added: ‘His movements on the day before the robbery, his contact with Ashman, the robbers and watches coming to his address – that’s all by chance as far as your concerned?’

‘There’s a lot of him everywhere’, Mehmet conceded, ‘but I can’t answer for another man’s actions and I don’t know what was going on at that time’.

‘Mr Mehmet, this is a pack of lies I suggest,’ Mr Brown said.

‘It’s not a pack of lies, I’ve told you everything, every question,’ said Mehmet.

He was then asked about leaving the UK for Turkey with his wife and children.

‘How did you finance your period abroad. Mr Mehmet,’ the barrister asked.

Mehmet said: ‘Borrowing off friends, people knowing what’s going on and helping me out – obviously I had my own money at the time – not a lot of money – but enough money to get my wife and kids out and still have some spending money.’

‘You were paid for your role in the robbery, weren’t you?’ Mr Brown suggested.

‘I didn’t collect any money – not one bit of money,’ Mehmet insisted.

‘Not a penny?’ Mr Brown asked.

‘I never got anything for the job, anything – me doing that job was for me to pay off my debt,’ he said.

Mr Brown then said: ‘Let’s keep our feet really firmly on the ground – this was truly a robbery of Oliver White wasn’t it, by you?’

‘Yeah, it was a robbery that I got told to do and I believed he knew what was going on – it was an inside job made to look like a robbery,’ he answered.

Kunu, of Mitcham, south London, Mehmet, of North Road, Rotherham and Holmes, of Rainham, Essex, all deny conspiracy to rob.

Jurors were told Pedro, of Cobham, Surrey, has already been tried and convicted of conspiracy to rob.

The trial continues.