A Harrods stock room controller who stole more than £15,000 worth of designer goods escaped jail after a judge agreed London was ‘very expensive’ and he could not make ends meet.
Marco Taffoni took at least six Bottega Veneta handbags while working at the iconic store between November 2023 and July 2024, and made up to £5,000 selling them on.
The 29-year-old had lost his job with Italian high fashion house Fendi before he began working at Harrods, and claimed he stole the bags because of the cost of living crisis.
Judge Sarah Paneth agreed that ‘London is a very expensive place’ and suspended his six-month jail sentence for a year.
Taffoni worked at the Bottega Veneta counter at the world famous Knightsbridge store as a stock controller and was caught when he tried to leave with a handbag hidden inside his own rucksack, which was inside a sealed Waitrose bag.
‘He had attempted to leave the store without paying for the bag,’ Aesha Baral, prosecuting, told Isleworth Crown Court.
‘He then admitted to police that he had taken a number of bags previously, since around November 2023.’
Taffoni sold the stolen bags using an online platform named Vestiaire Collective, and his barrister said he was now in a position to repay the store for its losses in full.
‘He is willing and able to do so,’ Libby Anderson, defending, said.
Ms Anderson said her client expressed ‘very real remorse and that he is bitterly ashamed.’
‘It was his reaction to finding himself under significant financial pressure. Of course that does not excuse it. He has been brought back to his senses with a sharp jolt,’ she added.
Taffoni has since found work at a different store, the court heard.
Judge Paneth told Taffoni: ‘Although this is a very serious offence, what is impressive is that you made an immediate confession.
‘I have no doubt you feel real shame for what you have done.
‘London is a very expensive place and you could not make ends meet having lost your job at Fendi as a store controller, in I believe 2021.’
Taffoni was also helping support a friend who had also lost his job at Fendi, the judge said.
‘This was committed at a time of intense stress for you. There are very good reasons to think this is not going to reoccur,’ she added.
‘I appreciate that you might not have told your future employers. It might come to light.
‘I have every confidence this will not be repeated. I very much hope that I am not wrong about this.’
Taffoni, from Barnet, north London, must perform 100 hours of unpaid work and 10 days of rehabilitation activity requirement (RAR) and was ordered to pay £11,740 compensation with a victim surcharge of £154.
He had previously admitted one count of theft by employee.
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