Pub thief jailed for stealing handbag with £2m Fabergé egg inside

An "opportunistic" thief who stole a handbag containing an emerald-encrusted Fabergé egg and watch set worth up to £2.2m from a central London pub has been jailed for more than two years.

Enzo Conticello, 29, took Rosie Dawson's handbag which she had placed between her legs on the ground as she stood outside the Dog and Duck in Soho on 7 November 2024.

The Fabergé items were in her handbag after she had taken them for display at a work event earlier that evening. They have not been recovered.

Conticello - also known as Hakin Boudjenoune - was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud by false representation and one count of theft at an earlier hearing.

The court heard Conticello was after "easy money" and that he had handed over the bag, which also contained a laptop and credit cards, to buy drugs.

He was linked to the handbag theft after trying to use Dawson's bank cards in a nearby shop within minutes of committing the crime.

Fabergé is a world-renowned luxury jeweller founded in Russia in 1842, famous for its eggs made of gems and precious metals.

Insurers paid out £106,700 for the loss to Dawson's employers at the Craft Irish Whiskey Company, but Prosecutor Julian Winship said there were only seven Fabergé sets - containing a jewelled egg, watch, whisky bottle, cigars and humidor - in existence.

Conticello's barrister, Katie Porter-Windley, said 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.

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.

Porter-Windley told the court Conticello did not realise how valuable the items were that he had stolen.

When Recorder Kate Livesey said the egg was "quite extraordinary looking", Porter-Windley said it was "so extraordinary that he wouldn't know on the face of it whether that was high value or not".

Sentencing him to two years and three months in prison, Livesey said the "opportunistic" theft caused "inconvenience and stress" to Dawson and her company.

"Ms Dawson described the particular shock and panic upon realising a bag containing items of such particular value owned by the company had been stolen, and the incredible stress this incident has caused her," she said.

Police are continuing to hunt for the egg and watch.

Det Con Arben Morina, who is leading the investigation, said: "Conticello thought nothing of helping himself to someone else's possessions, and he now faces a prison sentence as a result of his greed."