Edgar Davids Art Fraud Case Delayed Again Due to Defendant's Injury Claim
The long-running fraud case over Edgar Davids’s missing modern art collection took another twist in London on Friday, as the woman who admitted pawning his works failed to appear for sentencing – claiming she had been struck on the head by a bag on her way to the airport.
Almost five years after she was first charged, and more than a year after she pleaded guilty, 39-year-old wealth manager Nabila Habiby is still to learn her fate.
A £188,000 collection, a £31,500 loan
Davids, the former Netherlands international and ex-Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, had entrusted Habiby with the keys to his home in Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire, in December 2014 while he moved to an apartment in central London.
Among the possessions she was supposed to put into storage was a collection of 37 modern works by artists Paul Insect and Ron English, bought from the Opera Gallery in New York between 2006 and 2012. The art was valued at around £188,000 ($254,000).
Instead, Habiby took the pieces to pawnbrokers, securing loans totalling £31,500 against Davids’s collection. The paintings were then sold on to collectors around the world when she defaulted on the loans.
Davids only realised what had happened when one buyer, trying to trace the history of a painting, contacted him. By then, the damage was done. Some of the works have since been recovered, but 25 pieces remain missing.
Guilty pleas, but no sentence
Habiby admitted two counts of fraud in September 2025 and was released on bail, warned she could face up to 34 months in prison. The expectation was that sentencing would follow swiftly.
It never did.
An attempt to sentence her in March collapsed when she tried – unsuccessfully – to withdraw her guilty pleas. Friday’s hearing at Wood Green Crown Court in north London was the latest effort to bring the case to a close.
Again, it stalled.
Hit by luggage, on a drip in Belgium
Habiby, who now lives in Belgium, did not attend. Her defence barrister, Hannah Thomas, told the court she had received a message from her solicitor at around 9.30am (0830 GMT).
“On her way to the airport to come here she had been hit on the head by a piece of luggage en route,” Thomas said. “She had a concussion, since she passed out, and was taken to the hospital where she remains on a drip.”
Judge Emma Deacon was unimpressed by the paperwork provided to support that account, describing the medical evidence from Belgium as “inadequate”.
Even so, she agreed to adjourn the hearing so that the original judge who took the guilty pleas could pass sentence.
Five-year wait for justice
The case stems from a Metropolitan Police investigation into fraud offences dating back to 2015 and 2016. Habiby was first charged almost five years ago. Since then, the legal process has lurched from delay to delay, while Davids’s collection remains scattered.
Some of the art has been traced and recovered. Most has not. Twenty-five works are still missing, their trail stretching from New York galleries to anonymous private buyers.
For now, the legal trail continues instead.
Habiby has been ordered to attend court for sentencing on September 23 and must provide a full medical report to explain her latest no-show. The next hearing will decide whether this saga finally reaches a conclusion – or drags on into yet another season.
