A jewellery store employee was called into work on the day of a staged robbery because her boss “needed a real victim” to fool police and make a $2.8 million insurance claim, a jury has heard.
Germani Jewellers’ store at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel was robbed by two men one night in January 2023.
Its owner Michel Germani, 67, owed more than $184,000 in rent to the hotel and formed a plan to recoup funds before the store was shut down, prosecutor Cate Dodds previously told a NSW District Court jury.
READ MORE: Trump administration ‘expressed regret’ for postponing meeting with PM
Mounir Helou, 59, and Andrea David Cusumano, 59, are jointly on trial accused of being in on the scheme.
Helou is accused of being one of the two men who robbed the store, tying up Germani and shop assistant Lana Al-Khoury.
She had not been rostered on the night of the robbery but had been called in to work by her boss.
Today, Dodds urged the jury to reject claims by lawyers for the three men on trial that Al-Khoury also knew the robbery was fake.
Germani told Helou and the second man, who cannot be legally named, to tie her up to fool police and his insurance company.
“Michel Germani needed a real victim so it would look like a real and legitimate robbery,” she said.
Al-Khoury’s terror and distress had been witnessed by security guards and police who attended the store after the robbery, the jury was told.
Claims the shop assistant had lied about the emotional effects of the incident to get worker’s compensation should also be rejected, Dodds said.
READ MORE: Third person charged in Pheobe Bishop’s disappearance and alleged murder
Al-Khoury’s court evidence that she feared losing her job after seeing jewellery being moved out of the Hilton store and into Germani’s other shop nearby had an “absolute ring of truth” about it, the jury was told.
Someone planning to feign psychological symptoms and “pull the wool” over doctors and insurers for compensation would not have been worried about losing their job, Dodds said.
The eventual insurance claim seeking to recoup $2,821,348 for 164 items of jewellery “stolen” was denied, the court was told previously.
Germani has pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated robbery and one count of detaining without consent – both of which relate to what happened to Al-Khoury on the night.
He has admitted staging the robbery to gain financially through the attempted insurance claim and to providing false statements to police.
Helou has also admitted staging the robbery but has denied a more serious charge of aggravated robbery against Al-Khoury.
Both Germani and Helou are accused of committing “corporal violence” on the shop attendant.
Cusumano has pleaded not guilty to one count of committing the staged robbery to obtain a financial advantage.
The trial continues.
DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
