Edgar Davids Art Fraud Case Delayed Again Due to Defendant's No-Show

The long-running fraud case involving former Netherlands and Tottenham midfielder Edgar Davids took another twist in London on Friday, as the woman who admitted pawning his £188,000 modern art collection failed to appear for sentencing.

Instead of facing the judge at Wood Green Crown Court, 39-year-old Nabila Habiby stayed away, with her legal team claiming she had been struck on the head by a bag while travelling to the airport and was in hospital in Belgium.

Habiby, a wealth manager, had been entrusted with Davids’s belongings during a house move in December 2014, when he handed her the keys to his home in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire, while relocating to an apartment in central London. Among those belongings: an eye-catching collection of 37 works by artists Paul Insect and Ron English, bought by Davids from the Opera Gallery in New York between 2006 and 2012.

Instead of placing them in storage, Habiby took the pieces to pawnbrokers and secured £31,500 in loans against them. The art, valued at £188,000, was then sold on to collectors around the world when she defaulted.

Davids only discovered the deception when one of those collectors contacted him to ask about the painting’s history. By then, the damage was done. Some of the works have since been traced and recovered, but 25 pieces are still missing.

Habiby pleaded guilty in September 2025 to two counts of fraud and was released on bail, warned she could face up to 34 months in prison. Yet more than a year later, she has still not been sentenced.

The process has repeatedly stalled. A sentencing hearing in March collapsed when Habiby tried, unsuccessfully, to withdraw her guilty pleas. Friday’s listing was supposed to finally bring closure. Instead, the court was told she was again unavailable.

“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 made clear she was unimpressed by the supporting paperwork from Belgium, describing the medical evidence as “inadequate”. Even so, she agreed to adjourn the hearing so that the original judge who took the guilty pleas can pass sentence.

The delay stretches an already protracted case. It is now almost five years since Habiby was first charged, following a Metropolitan Police investigation into fraud offences dating back to 2015 and 2016.

The court has ordered Habiby to attend for sentencing on 23 September and to provide a full medical report to explain her latest absence. The art may be scattered and partly lost, but the patience of the court is clearly running out.