A music manager was stabbed to death for a designer watch worth up to £300,000, a court has been told.

Emmanuel Odunlami, 32, was allegedly set upon by three robbers, two of whom are from north London, on May 1, 2022 after leaving Haz restaurant near St Paul’s Cathedral.

Jordell Menzies, 26, from Kilburn, and Quincy Ffrench, 27, from Tottenham, have admitted robbery, alongside Louis Vandrose, 27, from Thornton Heath.

Menzies also pleaded guilty to manslaughter. All three men have been charged with murder.

Kavindu Hettiarachchi, a security guard from Harrow working at the event Odunlami had attended, allegedly tipped off the three robbers about the expensive watch.

He has been charged with being involved in the robbery and manslaughter.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that on the day of the attack, Mr Odunlami was wearing a Patek Philippe Nautilus watch which, if real, was worth between £90,000 and £300,000.

On the day of his death, he had driven to the City in his grey hatchback Mercedes to celebrate his birthday with friends, having organised tickets for a £1,400 table.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said: “It is believed the deceased’s watch may not have been genuine, but was treated as genuine by those who sought to take it.”

The court was told that as the event at Haz restaurant drew to a close at around 11pm, Hettiarachchi was caught on camera filming outside the venue and calling Vandrose.

Vandrose and Menzies were then allegedly driven to the restaurant by Ffrench in a white Mercedes with altered number plates from north-west London.

Mr Atkinson said that evidence suggests Odunlami “was making those other defendants aware of Mr Odunlami and his watch, in order that they could rob him of that apparently very valuable item”.

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Mr Odunlami was then attacked by the group after he left the restaurant with a friend, the court heard.

Mr Atkinson said: “Once Mr Odunlami was on the ground, all three defendants attacked him, shod feet were used as weapons to kick the defenceless man on the ground.

“During the course of that attack, one of the robbers, identifiable as Ffrench, bent down and took the object of this exercise, Mr Odunlami’s Patek Phillippe Nautilus watch.”

Jurors were told the victim, known to friends as Jay, worked in the music industry managing a number of performing artists.

The defendants then ran off, leaving the victim on the ground with a fatal stab wound to the chest.

A flick knife was recovered nearby and linked by scientific analysis to the victim and Menzies, who had used it to kill him, jurors heard.

Antonios Kfoury, 21, from Ealing, who is charged with perverting the course of justice, allegedly tried to obscure the role of Hettiarachchi in the security arrangement for the event and made a false statement to the police.

The defendants have denied the charges against them, and the Old Bailey trial continues.