Thief jailed for stealing £2.2 million Faberge egg from Soho pub

A man who stole a bag containing a Faberge egg and a watch set worth £2.2 million has been jailed for more than two years.

Enzo Conticello, 29, grabbed a handbag belonging to Rosie Dawson as she stood in the smoking area of ​​the Dog and Duck bar in Soho on November 7, 2024.

Inside the £1,600 Givenchy bag was an emerald-encrusted Faberge egg and Faberge watch, which belonged to Ms Dawson’s employers at the Craft Irish Whiskey Company.

The bag also contained an Apple laptop worth £1,500, Apple AirPods, a shop voucher worth £350, keys, three of Ms Dawson’s bank cards, make-up worth £200, a Mulberry card holder worth £150 and £20 cash.

Southwark Crown Court on Thursday heard Conticello was after “easy money” and said he handed over the bag, along with the Faberge egg and watch, to buy drugs.

Recorder Kate Livesey jailed her for two years and three months, saying the “opportunistic” theft had caused “inconvenience and stress” to Ms Dawson and her company.

“Ms. Dawson described the shock and panic she experienced when she realized that a bag containing such valuable company items had been stolen, and the incredible stress this incident caused her,” he said.

At a hearing in February, Conticello, also known as Hakin Boudjenoune, pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud and one count of theft by false pretense.

It was revealed that within minutes of committing the crime Ms Dawson was linked to the handbag theft as she had tried to use the stolen bank cards at a nearby store.

Prosecutor Julian Winship told the sentencing hearing: “Just before 10pm on 7 November 2024, (Ms Dawson) went to the Dog and Duck pub in Soho.

“She was in the designated smoking area outside the building, placed her purse on the ground between her legs and a few minutes later realized her purse was no longer there.”

The court heard Ms Dawson had the Faberge items in her purse after buying them to display at a business event earlier that evening.

Mr Winship said Conticello “wanted to make easy money” and prosecutors accepted he did not intend to steal the Faberge egg and accompanying watch.

Insurers paid the drinks company £106,700 for damages but the prosecutor said only seven Faberge sets were available, which included a jeweled egg, a watch, a cigar and a humidor.

Three of these had sold for two to three million dollars, and the company was seeking similar amounts for the remaining four sets.

Conticello’s lawyer, Katie Porter-Windley, told the court he had previously worked as a chef but lost his job due to the Covid pandemic and fell into cocaine addiction.

“The night in question was a moment where he seized the opportunity and he is truly remorseful for his actions,” he said.

“He gave the bag to someone to buy drugs. He had a cocaine addiction at that time.”

At 10.12pm, minutes after her purse was stolen, Ms Dawson received a fraud alert on her phone showing Conticello had attempted to use one of her bank cards for a £33.48 purchase from a store in nearby Berwick Street.

Two more attempts were made to use their cards, at 23.30 and 12.30, but these had already been canceled by the banks.

“In the early hours of Friday morning the complainant received a message on social media from someone who found his bank card lying on the ground between Soho and Charing Cross,” Mr Winship said.

Conticello was arrested on separate burglary charges in Belfast in November 2025, more than a year after the purse theft, and was subsequently linked to the 2024 crime.

The court heard the Faberge egg and watch had not been found and Mr Winship said efforts to seek confiscation or compensation from Conticello would not be pursued.

“It seems to me very unlikely that the defendant is a person capable of pursuing any of these specific avenues of prosecution that we have available to us,” Mr Winship said.

Ms Porter-Windley told the court Conticello was unaware of how valuable the items he stole were.

When the judge said the egg was “extraordinary-looking” and had an emerald exterior, the defense attorney replied: “So extraordinary that he would not have known at first glance whether it was of high value.”

He said Conticello was homeless at the time and is now “a man without any means.”

The judge said Conticello, of no fixed address, would normally have been ordered to pay Ms Dawson £3,000 in compensation, but he would not make that decision because he had no means of paying.

He will serve up to half of his prison sentence before being released on license.