Fraudster who pawned Edgar Davids’s £188,000 art collection misses sentencing after ‘being knocked out by luggage’

A FRAUDSTER who pawned Edgar Davids’ £188,000 art collection has claimed she failed to appear in court because she was knocked out by luggage. The football legend, 52, allowed friend Nabila Habiby to stay at his Hadley Wood mansion in 2014. Davids believed Habiby was looking after his possessions while he was away Credit: Getty The footie legend only realised his paintings had gone when Habiby defaulted on the loans Credit: Getty Davids believed that Habiby was looking after his possessions while he moved into a new Central London flat in December of that year. But a court has since heard that Habiby, 39, stole 37 pieces of art across the following two years before taking them to pawn brokers, with Davids believing that they were being stored at a unit in Enfield. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Habiby managed to obtain £31,500 in loans by handing over the 37 painting and works of art belonging to Davids. The former Spurs and Ajax midfielder only realised his paintings had gone when Habiby defaulted on the loans. A court heard that the pawn shops sold the art to collectors around the world with one getting in touch with him to inquire about the history of a painting. Habiby pleaded guilty in September 2025 to two counts of fraud, and she was set free on bail with a warning that she could face up to 34 months in prison. She has still not been sentenced, with the first attempt derailing after she made a failed attempt to withdraw her guilty pleas. Her case was listed for sentence again today, but Habiby was absent from the dock at Wood Green Crown Court. Most read in Sport Defence barrister Hannah Thomas said: “I received correspondence this morning, at around 9.30am, saying on her way to the airport to come here she had been hit on the head by a piece of luggage en route. “She had a concussion, since she passed out, and was taken to the hospital where she remains on a drip.” Judge Emma Deacon KC said she had been handed “inadequate” medical evidence from Belgium – where Habiby now lives – to support her story, however. The judge did agree to adjourn the sentencing hearing though, so that 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 a Metropolitan Police investigation. Her fraud offences date back to 2015 and 2016. The court heard the former baller 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 gone. Habiby has been ordered to come to court on September 23 to be sentenced. She has also been told to provide a full medical report to back up her absence from court on Friday.