A Romford burglar is one of two people accused of murdering a 21-year-old man and attacking his brother in a botched raid on a cannabis factory, a court has heard.

Renato Geci was stabbed to death in Granville Avenue, Hounslow, on March 22 last year.

Shaddai Smith, 32, of Firwood Lane, Romford, and Jason Sebran, 38, from Stanford-le-Hope, both deny charges of murder and wounding with intent.

During the trial at the Old Bailey yesterday (August 31), prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC alleged Smith and Sebran were part of a group of seven men in three cars and a van who turned up to Granville Avenue in the early hours of March 22.

He claimed the men had found out the property was being used as a cannabis farm with more than 200 plants worth up to £95,000, and were "intent on stealing the cannabis – secure in the knowledge that the owners would not go running to the police".

The group entered through a bathroom window on the upstairs floor using a ladder, Mr Aylett alleged.

He told the court: “As the second defendant, Jason Sebran, was later to tell police: ‘It’s not like I’m coming into someone’s house and nicking your TV and your video – it’s cannabis'.

"'They shouldn’t be doing it in the first place so I ain’t got no morals about taking it’.”

Mr Aylett continued: “All the same, those men were not acting in the public interest. Instead they were in it for money."

It is alleged that when 29-year-old Vilson Geci went to see what was going on, he was confronted by the men, sprayed with a liquid he believed to be acid and stabbed in the thigh, jurors heard.

The prosecution say a violent struggle ensued, in which Vilson’s brother Renato was stabbed with a screwdriver and a knife.

"As for Vilson, he was stabbed in the thigh with the knife and he also sustained a significant number of other injuries, albeit that most of them were fairly superficial," Mr Aylett told the court.

Jurors were told both Smith and Sebran have pleaded guilty to burglary but said they believed the premises were unoccupied at the time.

Smith accepted he entered the house but said he had come under attack from the occupants, the court heard.

Sebran said he had been waiting outside the property.

Mr Aylett told the court it is not alleged the men “set out to kill anyone” and they “no doubt regret what happened”.

The trial continues.