Mehmet Hassan honey trap death: Two guilty of murdering poker player

Two men who beat a poker player to death and then celebrated by throwing £50 notes in the air while he lay in a pool of blood have been convicted of murder.

Mehmet Hassan, 56, was lured by a honey-trap plot to his death at the hands of Kyrron Jackson, 28, and Nicholas Chandler, 29, in 2014.

Hassan was tied up and beaten by the pair who were let in to his home in Islington, north London, by a woman he had meet at a Mayfair casino and returned with to his home.

After leaving the professional gambler in a pool of blood, the trio filmed themselves celebrating on a mobile phone by throwing the money in the air.

Hassan was targeted because he was known to have won several thousand pounds at the poker table and the gang was motivated by "ruthless greed", prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said.

At the Old Bailey, Jackson and Chandler were convicted of murder. Honey-trap conspirator Leonie Granger, a care assistant who Jackson believed he was in a relationship with, was found guilty of manslaughter.

Granger, 25, went to upmarket restaurant Nobu with Hassan on the night he was killed and was given £1,000 ($1,478) to gamble with by him at a casino.

Following Hassan's death, tributes were paid to the father of three who turned a living betting on poker.

Friend Andrew Pyrah wrote on Twitter: "Mehmet Hassan was a class act at the card table and a gentleman off it. RIP Mem."

A relation of Hassan wrote in a floral tribute: "Mehmet was a lovely man who had a very big heart I can't believe the world we live in rip mem."