What unfolded outside the Dog and Duck
A drug-dependent thief who walked off with a handbag containing one of only seven Fabergé sets in the world has been sentenced to more than two years behind bars, after a chance theft outside a Soho pub turned into one of the more unusual jewellery cases to come before the courts in recent memory.
Enzo Conticello, 29, lifted the bag from the pavement outside the Dog and Duck on the evening of 7 November 2024. Its owner, Rosie Dawson, had set it down between her feet while standing outside the pub, unaware that the man already loitering inside had been caught on CCTV moments earlier attempting to take a different customer’s belongings. When that effort failed, he stepped outside and seized hers instead.
Inside were a laptop, bank cards and, most strikingly, an emerald-set Fabergé egg and matching timepiece valued at as much as £2.2 million. Dawson, who works for the Craft Irish Whiskey Company, had been carrying the items earlier that day for a work showcase. Neither piece has been seen since.
Why a haul this valuable ended up funding a drug deal
What sets the case apart is the gulf between the worth of what was stolen and what the thief believed he had taken. Southwark Crown Court was told that Conticello — who also goes by the name Hakin Boudjenoune — was simply chasing “easy money” and handed the bag on in exchange for cocaine.
His barrister, Katie Porter-Windley, told the court her client had once worked as a chef before losing his job during the pandemic and falling into addiction. She argued that the theft was unplanned and that he had no real grasp of what he had picked up. The egg, she suggested, was “so extraordinary that he wouldn’t know on the face of it whether that was high value or not” — a remark prompted by Recorder Kate Livesey’s own observation that the object was “quite extraordinary looking”. Porter-Windley said her client was “genuinely remorseful”.
The egg itself, fashioned from 18-carat yellow gold, took more than a hundred hours to make and is set with 104 diamonds around an uncut Zambian emerald. The accompanying 22-carat watch, housed in rose gold, draws its design from one of the so-called Seven Wonders of Ireland. Prosecutor Julian Winship told the court that just seven complete sets — each comprising an egg, watch, whisky bottle, cigars and humidor — are known to exist. Insurers reimbursed Dawson’s employer £106,700 for the loss.
A trail that began with a contactless payment
Conticello’s undoing came swiftly. Within minutes of pocketing the bag he attempted to use Dawson’s bank cards at a nearby shop, leaving investigators an immediate lead. He was not arrested in connection with the Soho theft at the time, however, and was only linked to it after being detained over separate offences in Belfast in November 2025. He later pleaded guilty to theft and to three counts of fraud by false representation.
Passing sentence of two years and three months, Recorder Livesey described the crime as opportunistic but said it had caused real distress. She cited Dawson’s account of the “shock and panic” of realising what had been taken, and the strain the episode placed on both her and her employer.
The Metropolitan Police say the search for the missing items goes on. Detective Constable Arben Morina, who is leading the inquiry, said Conticello had “thought nothing of helping himself to someone else’s possessions” and was now paying for his greed. He appealed for anyone with information about the whereabouts of the egg or watch to come forward.
