A thief who stole a handbag containing a rare Faberge egg and watch set worth more than £2 million has been jailed for two years.
Enzo Conticello, 29, swiped the Givenchy handbag belonging to Rosie Dawson as she stood in the smoking area of the Dog and Duck pub in Bateman Street on November 7, 2024.
Inside the £1,600 bag was an emerald-encrusted Faberge egg and Faberge watch belonging to Ms Dawson’s employers at the Craft Irish Whiskey Company, as well as a £1,500 Apple laptop, Apple AirPods, a £350 store voucher, keys, Ms Dawson’s three bank cards, £200 worth of make-up, a Mulberry card holder worth £150, and £20 in cash.
Southwark Crown Court heard on Thursday that Conticello was after ‘easy money’, and he says he handed over the bag – complete with the Faberge egg and watch – to buy drugs.
At a hearing in February, Conticello – also known as Hakin Boudjenoune – pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud by false representation and one count of theft.
He was linked to the handbag theft after trying to use Ms Dawson’s stolen bank cards in a nearby shop within minutes of committing the crime.
Conticellowas jailed today for two years and three months.
Detectives are still trying to recover the Faberge egg.
It is around 10cm high and is green and gold in colour. The missing watch is rose gold with a brown leather strap.
The egg and watch are part of a limited edition run of matching items produced by Fabergé.
In 2024, a similar set of items was auctioned together with a rare bottle of whiskey for $2.8 million (£2 million).
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Prosecutor Julian Winship told the sentencing hearing: ‘On November 7, 2024, at just before 10pm, (Ms Dawson) went to the Dog and Duck pub in Soho.
‘She was outside the premises in the designated smoking area, she put her handbag on the ground in between her legs, and a few minutes later she noticed her handbag was no longer there.’
The court heard Ms Dawson had the Faberge items in her handbag after she had taken them for display at a work event earlier that evening.
Mr Winship said Conticello ‘wanted to obtain some easy cash’, and prosecutors accept he did not intend to steal the Faberge egg and accompanying watch.
Insurers have paid out £106,700 to the drinks company for the loss, but the prosecutor said there are only seven Faberge sets – containing a jewelled egg, watch, cigars and humidor – in existence.
Three had been sold for between two to three million dollars, and the company was seeking similar amounts for the remaining four sets.
Conticello’s barrister, Katie Porter-Windley, told the court he previously worked as a chef but lost his job in the Covid pandemic and slipped into cocaine addiction.
‘On the night in question, it was a moment of opportunity which he took, and he is genuinely remorseful for his behaviour,’ she said.
‘He gave the bag to someone to purchase drugs. He had a cocaine addiction at the time.’
Within minutes of her handbag being stolen, Ms Dawson received a fraud alert on her phone at 10.12pm, showing Conticello had tried to use one of her bank cards for a £33.48 purchase at a shop in nearby Berwick Street.
Two further attempts were made to use her cards, at 11.30pm and 12.30am, but they had already been cancelled with the banks.
‘Early on Friday morning, the complainant received a message on social media from someone who had found her bank card on the ground between Soho and Charing Cross,’ Mr Winship said.
Conticello was arrested for separate theft offences in Belfast in November 2025, more than a year after the handbag theft, and was then linked to the 2024 crime.
The court heard the Faberge egg and watch have not been recovered, and Mr Winship said efforts to seek confiscation or compensation from Conticello will not be pursued.
‘It appears to me unlikely that the defendant is a person of means able to satisfy either of these particular prosecutorial routes available to us,’ said Mr Winship.
Ms Porter-Windley told the court Conticello did not realise how valuable the items were that he had stolen.
When the judge remarked the egg is ‘quite extraordinary looking’, with an emerald forming part of its exterior, the defence barrister replied: ‘It is so extraordinary that he wouldn’t know on the face of it whether that was high value or not.’
She said Conticello was homeless at the time, and he is currently a ‘man of no means’.
The judge said Conticello, of no fixed address, would ordinarily have been ordered to pay £3,000 in compensation to Ms Dawson, but she would not make the order as he has no way of paying it.
He is set to serve up to half the prison term before being released on licence.
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