Baljit Singh murder: Killer looked 'ill' on day of attack

Stuart Millership also had around £1,000 cash and was driving the victim's £15,000 car, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

His girlfriend Jade Whitehouse - they were living together at her rented home in Beeches Road, Rowley Regis - explained while giving evidence to the hearing:

"He came in shortly after I got home from work. He looked ill, agitated and on edge. I asked him if he was OK. He said he had had a stressful day."

Mr Robert Price, prosecuting, alleged that 33-year-old Millership murdered Baljit 'Bill' Singh, aged 50, in the house earlier in the day - December 23 - and had hidden the body in the cellar with a knife still sticking out of the neck of the victim. A neighbour heard noises that could have been the murder between noon and 2pm, it was said

Miss Whitehouse revealed: "He said Bill had given the Range Rover to him that day."

The defendant handed her up to £400 cash from a roll of money totalling around £1,000 and then drove Miss Whitehouse and her sister in Singh's car to the Merry Hill shopping centre where he dropped them off to buy Christmas presents.

Miss Whitehouse, who gave evidence from behind a screen, told the court she hated going down into the cellar of her house and Millership knew this. The door always remained closed, she said.

Mr Rex Tedd QC, defending, said to her during cross examination: "Millership and Mr Singh were concerned in illegal activities involving cannabis. The thrust of these was the growing of cannabis in premises owned by Mr Singh.

"There had been a seizure by police of cannabis being grown at one of these in 2014. As a result Millership was owed money in relation to this failed venture."

It was suggested that Mr Singh had set up a deal to import shower units from China to make money and pay off the alleged debt.

The defendant became increasingly angry over the delay and told people he was being given a Range Rover to settle the matter, it was said.

On New Year's Eve he asked Miss Whitehouse to follow him in her car while he drove Mr Singh's vehicle to the home of a relative in Kingswinford where it was left.

The couple were travelling back home in the car of Miss Whitehouse when a police helicopter suddenly appeared low overhead and officers swooped to stop the vehicle. She told the court: "Stew said: 'They have come to take me away.' He didn't say why.

"I had no idea why the police would want him. He had told me nothing about what had been going on between December 23 and New Year's Eve."

On New Year's Day two police officers searched the address and in the cellar saw a foot sticking out from under a pile of bin bags which they removed to reveal the body of Mr Singh from Meadow Road, Harborne.

He has pleaded guilty on the basis that he played a minor role in the attack but the fatal blows were delivered by two Albanian drug dealers. The prosecution insist he acted alone and a judge will rule on the facts of the case at the end of the present hearing when Millership will be sentenced. The case continues.