A restaurant manager was killed during an £2,000 "mission" to scare him so that he wouldn't report illegal migrants working at an Indian restaurant, a court has heard. 

Mr Vignesh Pattabi-Raman, the 36-year-old manager of The Vel South Indian Kitchen, was found in a pool of blood in Addington Road in the early hours of February 15. 

He was rushed to hospital but died later the same day. 

Two men, 24-year-old Shazeb Khalid and 27-year-old Soiheem Hussain, stand trial accused of orchestrating and carrying out the brutal murder, with Mr Khalid having carried out the murder on the orders of Mr Hussain.

During the trial at Reading Crown Court, the prosecution had told the jury that Mr Khalid - who has previously admitted one count of manslaughter - had accepted he was the driver of the Range Rover that had collided with Mr Raman as he cycled home. 

Now Mr Khalid has told told the court that he was asked by Mr Hussain to "scare" Mr Raman - as it was believed that "he was giving the Home Office information about illegal immigrants working at the restaurant."

He has told the court that he was going to be paid £2,000 for the "plan."

The defendant, wearing a grey suit as he took to the witness stand, said that he had planned to "grab" Mr Raman and tell him that he needed "to stop asking questions that don't involve him regarding immigrants working in the restaurant."

Describing how he become "impatient" for the restaurant manager to leave the venue on the night of the incident, Mr Khalid was questioned about his intentions. 

Prosecutor Sally Howes said: "You were keen to do the job for £2,000, just to prod someone in the ribs...£2,000 for a moment's work - and you're getting impatient?"

Mr Khalid said: "I had things to do, places to go. I had a pregnant missus at home."

Mr Khalid was asked to explain how the Range Rover he was driving came to be "written-off" by him crashing it into a tree along Addington Road, shortly after Mr Raman had been knocked off his bicycle.

Prosecutor Ms Howes said: "You veered across him?"

Mr Khalid said: "No, I didn't know that I had hit him. I cannot tell you how I collided with him - but it wasn't intentional."

Mr Khalid said the collision was "an accident" that came about as he speed-up and became "too close" to Mr Raman. The 24-year-old said he panicked and fled the scene after the incident. 

The court also heard how Mr Raman was wearing a rucksack, which had to be cut off him by paramedics following the incident. Police found the main part of the rucksack unzipped - but the last footage of Mr Raman showed him zipping it up after placing food containers inside, according to Ms Howes. 

"Someone had unzipped that bag," the prosecutor said to Mr Khalid. 

Mr Khalid said: "It wasn't me."

Ms Howes said it was unzipped because Mr Khalid "knew that's where the money would be."

"Mission accomplished," she added. 

Mr Khalid said: "I didn't take no money."

The prosecution played a clip from a video door bell that captured Mr Khalid speaking to Mr Hussain shortly after the incident, with Ms Howes arguing that the words "loads of money" and "dead weight" could be heard. 

The prosecutor said: "Rather than being panicked, you appear to be relieved that you got his money, loads of money."

Mr Khalid said he had been talking about money - "in terms of getting the tyre fixed" on the car.

He said: "Dead weight, I have never used that phrase in my life."

Mr Khalid, previously of Engineers Court in Reading, Berkshire, denies one count of murder. He has previously admitted one count of manslaughter. Mr Hussain, of Rossby in Shinfield, Reading, was arrested on February 29, and also denies one count of murder.

Ms Mya Reilly, of Chiltern Gardens in Woodcote, Oxfordshire, denies one count of assisting an offender, and another of perverting the course of justice.

The trial continues.