A man accused of burgling the home of a reality star and stealing her expensive Mercedes has claimed he had not heard of her.

Jayd Gordon told a court he was not aware of TOWIE and Ex on the Beach personality Nicole Bass.

“I have never known about her until this trial,” he said.

Miss Bass was on holiday in Las Vegas when her flat in Dartford was broken into and trashed.

Gordon, 30, claimed he had not seen photos of the 26-year-old posing in the desert resort city on her Instagram account.

He denies burglary and theft. His co-accused Nicholas Cato, 31, admitted the charges last week on the fourth day of the trial.

Maidstone Crown Court has heard heads were chopped off Miss Bass' soft toys on her bed, and paint, food and other items were thrown around.

She returned to her rented flat in Creek Mill Way from Las Vegas earlier than planned on June 9 last year because of an accident.

She saw that her £30,000 Mercedes GLA AMG was missing from the underground car park and then found that her flat had been extensively damaged.

Miss Bass, who has a social media following of 500,000, said of her car being missing: “I was just completely baffed (sic). I was thinking: Where has my car gone?”

She said of the damage caused to the second floor flat: “It was trashed. It wasn’t just as if they burgled my flat, they had absolutely violated it.”

She added she was so upset that they she immediately moved out and sold her car.

Property including designer clothes, a Rolex watch and Pandora jewellery was stolen.

Automatic number plate recognition cameras showed that the stolen car, in convoy with a VW Tiguan, was moving between Dartford and London on June 8 and 9.

The VW was stopped in Sydenham on June 13. Gordon was the driver and Cato a passenger. The car belonged to Gordon’s girlfriend.

The stolen Mercedes was found in Sydenham on June 23.

Cato’s phone had pictures of some of the stolen clothes on it. Prosecutor Nina Ellin suggested they had been photographed so that they could be sold.

Gordon admitted he was with Cato throughout on two journeys to Dartford on June 8.

“He asked me to drop him off in Dartford to meet a friend and a few lady friends,” he said. “I wasn’t interested in meeting them.”

Gordon said he was offered petrol money to drive Cato in the Audi. They pulled up in a cul-de-sac but the friend was not there.

They returned to Lewisham. Cato, he said, then wanted to return to Dartford as the friend would be there.

They went to the same road and the friend got into the car. Two women arrived.

Gordon claimed the other man and the two women “went out of sight” for about 20 minutes before returning in a Mercedes.

“I got out at looked at it,” he continued. “It was brand new. I liked the car. I looked inside. I said: ‘It looks nice.’ I got back in the Tiguan.

“My co-defendant basically told me ‘Let’s go’. The man and two women got into the Mercedes. We were probably doing 90mph. The Mercedes was going fast as it overtook me.

“I was trying to beat it, but I couldn’t. We made our way to London. The Mercedes ended up being parked in Brockley.

“The two females left the vicinity. His friend got back into my vehicle. We went on to McDonald’s in Deptford, but it wasn’t open.

“They gave me some (petrol) money. Mr Cato gave me probably £10 in change. His friend gave me a number of coins and a note as well. It seemed like more than 40 quid in total.”

When arrested on June 13, Gordon said he declined to give police his phone PIN because he had intimate photos of him and his partner on it.

“I initially didn’t want to say anything to incriminate myself or anybody,” he said. “I hadn’t done a burglary.”

He claimed he did not know Cato had been involved in the burglary.

“Generally, I was caught by shock,” he said. “I didn’t know what to say.”

He told police: “I am absolutely shell shocked. It’s sick man.”

He told the jury: “I had a feeling of revulsion. It is horrible. I didn’t know the burglary and theft had taken place.”

Cato, of Africa Road, Brockley, south London, will be sentenced after the trial of Gordon, of Braidwood Road, Catford, south east London.

The trial continues.