‘HONEY TRAP GIRL LURED POKER ACE TO DEATH FOR WINNINGS’

ON TRIAL: Leonie Granger A PROFESSIONAL poker player was killed for his stash of winnings after being lured into a honey trap by a woman he met at a casino, a court heard.

Mehmet Hassan, 56, was bound with parcel tape and a neck tie and then kicked and stamped to death in the bedroom of his Islington flat in March last year.

The attackers, who then ransacked his home looking for cash, were let in by 25-year-old care assistant Leonie Granger, who Mr Hassan had met at a Mayfair casino, jurors heard.

It is alleged afterwards, while he lay dead in a pool of blood, Granger and her accomplices were filmed on her phone throwing £50 notes around and stuffing wads in underpants.

Granger is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of murder and false imprisonment alongside her boyfriend Kyrron Jackson and his close friend Nicholas Chandler, both 28.

Opening the case, Crispin Aylett QC said: “When Miss Granger was arrested, the police seized her mobile phone. It appears she had attempted to delete much of the incriminating material stored in that telephone.

“Nonetheless, among the items that have survived is a piece of film which appears to have been recorded on the morning of Monday, March 24.

“Miss Granger, Jackson and Chandler can each be seen holding bundles of £50 notes. At one point Chandler is spraying £50 notes all over the floor while Jackson is stuffing £50 notes into his underpants.

“While Mr Hassan’s body lay undetected in his flat, his killers were throwing his money around.”

Mr Hassan was described as a professional gambler who sometimes won as much as £15,000 at a time.

Rather than using bank accounts, he would stash his winnings around MURDERED: Professional gambler Mehmet Hassan his flat, even keeping thousands of pounds in his microwave.

He had two favourite casinos in Mayfair – the Playboy Casino and the Palm Beach Casino.

The divorced father-of-three also “enjoyed the company of women”, making him “vulnerable to the unscrupulous”, Mr Aylett added.

The court heard on the evening of Sunday, March 23, Granger met the victim for a drink before going on to the Palm Beach Casino where they were seen kissing passionately.

Granger, of Gillingham, Kent, and Jackson and Chandler, both of Lewisham, south-east London deny the charges against them.

Trial continues.