Influencer sobs in court as he denies robbing entrepreneur of designer watch in central London

An influencer broke down in tears in court as he denied helping to rob a fashion designer of his diamond-encrusted watch in central London.

Abdel El Habchi, 30, who has around a million followers on Facebook, and Ali Eldahouzze, 22, are accused of robbing designer Catalin Botezatu. Jurors were told a third man, Younes Djoudi, has pleaded guilty to robbery.

Mr Botezatu, who is a Romanian entrepreneur, had been having dinner with his assistant and a friend before he was allegedly robbed of his Richard Mille watch worth more than £137,000 by the trio, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Giving evidence on Friday, El Habchi told jurors through an Arabic interpreter: “I had no idea it was going to happen, I did not participate, I didn’t know even that a watch was snatched or stolen until later on.”

The court heard Mr Botezatu had been smoking a cigar with a friend on the terrace of Latin American restaurant Amazonico in Berkeley Square on the evening of January 28.

Fashion designer Catalin Botezatu leaving Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, August 25

PA

Prosecutors allege that the watch was later cut from his wrist shortly before midnight.

El Habchi, who grew up in a town near Casablanca, Morocco, told the court he came to the UK in 2019 on a spouse visa and is married with two children.

Jurors heard that El Habchi had been working as a security guard, but also has a Facebook following of around a million, around 350,000 Instagram followers and a TikTok account.

The defendant said he and his friend, Eldahouzze, had been travelling from Slough to Soho, central London, hours before the alleged robbery when Eldahouzze received a call from Djoudi telling him to meet in Mayfair.

El Habchi told jurors that while in Djoudi’s car close to the restaurant, he sat in the back watching TikTok videos and heard Djoudi being “threatening” and aggressive towards Eldahouzze.

While walking around the area later on, he saw Djoudi “use his hand to grab something from the hand” of a man, the court heard.

Explaining why he ran from the scene, El Habchi said: “At that moment it was panic and after one or two seconds when I see Ali run I was panicked and I was completely lost, I had never been in this situation before.”

El Habchi said that Eldahouzze later told him that Djoudi had threatened him to “execute what he asked him to do”.

Asked by his barrister, Loheswaran Amirthananthar, how he felt at the time, El Habchi replied: “To be honest with you I felt as if I was betrayed, I had no idea what was happening and I found myself in this problem.”

He said Eldahouzze told him he was “scared” of Djoudi.

El Habchi told jurors that Djoudi met the pair the following morning with the watch.

Asked whether any threats had been made against him, El Habchi tearfully replied: “He turned to me and made a threat ‘if you report anything to the police I will burn your kids’.”

He said he was “under threat” and “scared” of Djoudi, who he claimed “has a lot of connections”.

He added: “I was just concentrating on my kids’ safety. I was really scared and I find myself in the middle of a deep problem.”

The court heard that all three men were incarcerated at Wandsworth prison after their arrests.

El Habchi said that in April he was attacked by around 16 people in the prison and that Djoudi had “instigated” the assault.

He told jurors he suffered a cut to his back and was stamped on the head.

Prosecutor Arizuna Asante told the court on Tuesday that after leaving the restaurant, Mr Botezatu “stood near the car smoking for a few minutes with his friend before he was approached by three males”.

Mr Asante told jurors: “The three males surrounded Mr Botezatu and robbed him of his watch by wresting it from his left wrist.

“It is believed a knife was used to cut through the rubber strap because the victim had cuts on his wrists after the watch was taken.”

Mr Asante, cross-examining El Habchi on Friday afternoon, said: “I’m going to suggest to you Mr El Habchi, that your intention in going to Berkeley Square was to see if there was anybody there with a high-value watch to steal or rob from them?”

The defendant replied: “No.”

The prosecutor added: “That’s why, isn’t it, that you, Mr Djoudi and Mr Eldahouzze walked up and down Amazonico eyeing Mr Botezatu as a target?”

El Habchi replied: “I have no idea about this no.”

Prosecutors say the watch would now be worth “significantly more” than 160,000 euro.