A man who stole a handbag from a London pub, unaware it contained a £2.2 million Fabergé egg and watch set, has been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Enzo Conticello, 29, was handed a term of two years and three months at Southwark Crown Court for the “opportunistic” theft from Rosie Dawson as she stood in the smoking area of Soho’s historic Dog and Duck pub on 7 November 2024. Recorder Kate Livesey told Conticello the crime had caused “inconvenience and stress” to Ms Dawson and “particular shock and panic” when she realised the immense value of the company property inside her £1,600 Givenchy bag.
The Lost Treasures: An Heirloom for the Modern Age
The court heard the bag’s most staggering contents were an emerald-encrusted Fabergé egg and a matching Fabergé watch, property of Ms Dawson’s employer, The Craft Irish Whiskey Company. Prosecutors confirmed these were part of “The Emerald Isle Collection,” a collaboration between the whiskey firm and the legendary jeweller. Only seven of these custom sets were ever made.
Each set includes a Celtic Egg, handcrafted from 18k yellow gold and featuring Fabergé’s signature guilloché enamel in the colours of the Irish flag. Adorned with a pavé diamond Celtic knot, each egg contains a rough, uncut emerald and requires over 100 hours of work. It is paired with an 18k rose gold Altruist watch. While insurers paid the company £106,700 for the loss, the firm had been seeking sums comparable to the $2-3 million for which three other sets in the collection had previously sold.
Founded in 2018 by Jay Bradley, The Craft Irish Whiskey Company aims to position Irish whiskey as a luxury collectible. Its “Devil’s Keep” whiskey was named the World’s Best Irish Single Malt in 2022, and its first Fabergé collaboration set sold for $2 million at auction in 2021, with proceeds donated to charity. The stolen items were in Ms Dawson’s care after being displayed at a work event earlier that evening.
Also lost were a £1,500 Apple laptop, AirPods, a £350 store voucher, bank cards, £200 of make-up, a £150 Mulberry card holder, and £20 cash.
Motive, Capture, and a Historic Pub Setting
Prosecutor Julian Winship said Conticello, who also uses the name Hakin Boudjenoune, was after “easy money” and that he handed the bag over to buy drugs. The court accepted he did not intend to steal the Fabergé items. His defence barrister, Katie Porter-Windley, said Conticello had worked as a chef but lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic—a period that devastated the hospitality sector—and slid into a cocaine addiction. He was homeless at the time of the theft.
The crime swiftly unraveled. Within minutes, Ms Dawson received a fraud alert; Conticello had tried to use one of her cards for a £33.48 purchase at a shop in nearby Berwick Street at 10:12pm. Two further attempts failed as the cards were cancelled. He was not apprehended for this theft until over a year later, following his arrest for separate offences in Belfast in November 2025, which led to his link to the Soho crime.
The theft occurred at the Grade II listed Dog and Duck at 18 Bateman Street, a pub with a Victorian interior preserved on the national inventory of historic pub interiors. The venue, rebuilt in 1897, has a storied past, counting writers George Orwell and artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti among its former patrons.
The Fabergé egg and watch have not been recovered. Mr Winship told the court that efforts to seek confiscation or compensation from Conticello would not be pursued, stating it was “unlikely that the defendant is a person of means.” The judge noted she would ordinarily have ordered £3,000 in compensation for Ms Dawson but did not, as Conticello had no way to pay. He is expected to serve up to half his sentence before release on licence.
