Amir Khan ‘terrified’ as staring into £70,000 watch robber’s gun ‘scarier than any of my fights’
Champion boxer was robbed of his custom-made £70,000 wrist watch as he left a restaurant in London
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The former world boxing champion Amir Khan has told a court how looking down the barrel of a gun as he was robbed of his £70,000 watch was scarier than any of his fights.
Khan, 36, said his wife, Faryal Makhdoom, 31, was “screaming and crying” when he was targeted as they left the Sahara Grill Restaurant in Leyton, east London, on 18 April last year.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard how he was forced to hand over his bespoke, diamond-encrusted Franck Muller watch – a gift following a boxing match – to gunman Dante Campbell, 20.
Mr Khan, who was a unified world champion at light-welterweight and won a silver medal at the Olympics, said the robber pointed a gun in his face and said: “Take off the watch.”
The Bolton-born boxer, who retired last year with a professional record of 34 wins from his 40 fights, told a jury: “[I was] really scared. I have got three kids, my wife was next to me as well.”
“I’m a sportsman, I’m a fighter,” he continued. “I have always been put in the toughest situations when I go into the ring and fight someone, but this was totally different, very, very scary.”
Asked how close the robber was to him, Mr Khan said: “Very close. He was really close. I remember the gun – a foot from my face. I remember looking right into the barrel there, looking into the gun barrel.”
Mr Khan, who currently lives in Dubai, had been shopping in Knightsbridge while his influencer wife was doing a shoot, before the couple ate dinner for an hour with his friend Omar Khalid, breaking the Ramadan fast. The attack happened as they left.
“I was walking and Faryal was a couple of steps behind me. I put my hand on the door handle and I saw a guy run to me,” he said.
“It happened quite fast. I thought maybe it was someone messing about. He ran to me and pushed me towards the car, I fell back on the car and next I see a gun pointed in my face.
“It’s the first time I have ever seen a gun.”
Mr Khan said he was in “shock” and that he did not want to look at the gunman, who had his face covered with a scarf, because “I didn’t want him to pull the trigger”.
Ismail Mohamed, 24, from Edmonton; Ahmed Bana, 25, from Tottenham; and Nurul Amin, 25, from Harringay; all north London, are on trial where they deny conspiracy to rob. Bana also denies possessing an imitation firearm.
Mr Campbell, from Hornsey, also north London, has pleaded guilty to the charges, the jury has been told.
Mr Bana is alleged to have been the driver of the silver Mercedes coupe, which dropped Campbell and another unknown robber at the scene before serving as the getaway vehicle.
Mr Amin and Mr Mohamed, along with another man who is not on trial, are said to have acted as spotters – dining in the restaurant to keep track of Mr Khan’s movements and relay them by phone to Mr Bana.
Prosecutor Philip Evans KC said the “carefully planned and executed robbery”, which was captured on CCTV played to jurors, was “over in seconds”.
Zacharias Miah, defending Mr Amin, highlighted Mr Khan and his wife’s BBC Three reality television show, Meet the Khans, and pointed to social media posts by the boxer.
“You are not shy in telling the world about your luxury lifestyle and the luxury items you have with you,” he suggested to Mr Khan. “I’m not shy, I have worked hard for it,” Mr Khan said.
Mr Khan, who said his insurance expired two weeks before his watch was stolen, admitted telling the media shortly after the robbery he believed “the hit” had been orchestrated by a member of his inner circle but said he had been mistaken.
The trial continues.