Edgar Davids art thief misses sentencing after being 'knocked out by luggage' / Photo: © AFP
Edgar Davids art thief misses sentencing after being 'knocked out by luggage'
A thief who pawned former Dutch international footballer Edgar Davids's £188,000 ($254,000) collection of modern art failed to turn up to a London court to be sentenced on Friday, claiming she had been struck with a bag on her way to the airport.
Nabila Habiby, 39, obtained £31,500 in loans by handing over 37 painting and works of art belonging to Davids, after the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder had entrusted her to put his possessions in storage during a house move.
Davids only realised his paintings had gone when Habiby defaulted on the loans, the pawn shops sold the art to collectors around the world, and one got in touch with Davids to ask about the history of the painting.
Habiby pleaded guilty in September 2025 to two counts of fraud, and she was set free on bail with a warning she could face up to 34 months in prison.
But more than a year later, she has still to be sentenced.
The first attempt to pass sentence, in March, floundered when Habiby made a failed bid to withdraw her guilty pleas.
On Friday, her case was again listed for sentence, but Habiby was absent from Wood Green Crown Court in north London.
"I received correspondence this morning from my solicitor, at around 9.30am (0830 GMT), saying on her way to the airport to come here she had been hit on the head by a piece of luggage en route," defence barrister Hannah Thomas told the court.
"She had a concussion, since she passed out, and was taken to the hospital where she remains on a drip."
Judge Emma Deacon said she had been handed "inadequate" medical evidence from Belgium, where Habiby now lives, to support her story.
Nevertheless, Deacon agreed to adjourn the sentencing hearing so the original judge who oversaw the case when guilty pleas were entered could pass sentence.
It is now almost five years since Habiby was first charged after an investigation by London's Metropolitan Police over fraud offences dating back to 2015 and 2016.
The court heard Davids handed Habiby, a wealth manager, the keys to his home in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire when he was moving to an apartment in central London in December 2014.
She took his collection of works by artists Paul Insect and Ron English, which he had bought from the Opera Gallery in New York between 2006 and 2012, to pawnbrokers.
Some of the paintings have since been recovered, but 25 works of art are missing.
Habiby has been ordered to attend court for sentencing on September 23. She has also been told to provide a full medical report to support her absence from court on Friday.
(V.Sørensen--DTZ)
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