A chef was stabbed to death on his birthday when a gang of masked robbers burst into his home, a jury heard.

Tinakorn Tuekpia collapsed dying in the garden after he was attacked in front of his pregnant girlfriend.

Syed Bukhari, 28, of Ringwood Road, Canterbury, Bradford, denies murder and conspiracy to rob.

Prosecutor Tom Bayliss QC told Bradford Crown Court yesterday Mr Tuekpia was running a brothel at his home at 685, Little Horton Lane, Bradford.

Mr Bayliss said the four-strong gang believed up to £25,000 was hidden under floorboards at the property.

The jury was told that Subhan Khan, 21, of Tern Street, Canterbury, Bradford, Israr Hussain, 28, of Grantham Road, Little Horton, and a teenager, who was 17 at the time, had all pleaded guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to rob. The jury heard that Bukhari denied being present at the scene or being one of the gang.

Mr Bayliss said Mr Tuekpia, 42, died shortly after being knifed in the chest when the gang smashed its way through patio doors at 1am on August 17 last year.

The court heard that Mr Tuekpia came to the UK from Thailand in 2007. He lost his job as a chef and ran the brothel with his girlfriend, Nitaya Cheumeraeng, who was expecting his child.

Mr Bayliss said although all four men were present when Mr Tuekpia was fatally attacked, Bukhari was the murderer.

“He was the man wielding the knife, he was the actual killer,” he told the jury.

Mr Bayliss said Bukhari took a knife to the scene, tucked down his trousers.

Other gang members carried a glass-shatter hammer, a wrench and a nail hammer.

They are wore balaclavas, or bandannas, and gloves.

They scaled the back wall of the house, shattered the patio doors and burst in.

Mr Tuekpia died from a single stab wound to the chest while defending himself with a stick.

The weapon penetrated his heart and caused massive blood loss.

The gang fled empty-handed. “All turned out for nothing – but a human life,” Mr Bayliss said.

Mrs Cheumeraeng told the jury she fell when a gang member came towards her with a knife.

She saw another man approaching Mr Tuekpia with a large kitchen knife.

She did not see him get injured. His face went pale and he was lying in the garden.

The trial continues.