Boutique boss Knightsbridge, 63, ‘swindled £1.3 million by runaway heiress’

Over the decades, her high-end fashion boutique in Knightsbridge has included Princess Diana, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ava Gardner among her clientele.

But Bridget Hutchcroft, owner of Pandora Dress Agency near Harrods, laments the day an apparently wealthy and charming ‘heiress’ waltzed through her door – eventually swindling her out of £1.3 million.

Ms Hutchcroft, 63, told the Mail how she had been betrayed by Ekaterina Barrett, 67, who befriended her and convinced her that she urgently needed a loan to help her through a costly divorce.

The case has echoes of Anna Sorokin, the inspiration behind Netflix drama Inventing Anna, who financed her lavish lifestyle by posing as a wealthy German heiress to swindle New York’s high society.

“Ekaterina never fully explained where her money came from, but after visiting her apartment in Monaco, I truly believed she had a huge trust fund that she told me about,” Ms Hutchcroft said.

Bridget Hutchcroft (pictured), owner of Pandora Dress Agency near Harrods, laments the day an apparently wealthy and charming ‘heiress’ walked in her door and ended up swindling her out of £1.3million

“She really looks uncanny like Anna Sorokin, only Ekaterina hasn’t been caught yet.”

Last year a High Court judge ruled that Ms Barrett must hand over £1.6 million to Ms Hutchcroft to repay the loan and cover legal costs after she broke an agreement to repay the money.

But Ms Hutchcroft has now had to hire private investigators to track down the ‘heiress’ as no penny has yet been handed over.

‘She could be anywhere. Some people I know say they’ve seen her around Mayfair recently, but I think she lives permanently in Monaco,” she said.

Ms. Barrett was looking good when she started visiting the Pandora boutique in 2017. She mingled with London’s elite at exclusive restaurants, lived in a £4.2 million Mayfair flat and was driven around town in a Bentley.

Over the decades, the Knightsbridge boutique has included Princess Diana (pictured), Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ava Gardner among its clientele

She told Ms Hutchcroft that her grandfather had set up “a substantial trust for her in Liechtenstein” but she was temporarily unable to access the funds, according to documents filed with the Supreme Court.

A few months into their friendship, Mrs. Barrett sobbed that she was going through an expensive divorce and asked to borrow money.

Her bank manager assured Ms Hutchcroft that her wealth was “equal to a Rothschild,” the court heard. But Mrs. Hutchcroft began to have second thoughts after realizing how much she had borrowed her friend.

She said, “I just got to a point where I had to sit down and work out how much I had given her over the course of the year, and I was shocked at how much I had allowed this person to take.

“I called her and said, ‘You have to pay me Ekaterina.’ And she said, “Next time you ask, I won’t pay you for a hundred years.” I was just so upset. I trusted her, ridiculously enough.’

To her horror, Mrs Hutchcroft then learned that Mrs Barrett had previously been convicted of fraud in Austria.

She contacted Scotland Yard, but officers refused to investigate, saying it was a civil matter.

She then filed a claim in the Supreme Court, where Ms Barrett denied borrowing the money, claiming the payments were for the sale of designer clothes. The matter was settled before trial when Ms Barrett agreed to pay £1.4 million.

But when she failed to pay, Ms Hutchcroft returned to court and secured a judge’s ruling that she had to pay £1.6 million.

Ms. Barrett is an Azerbaijani national and was born Ekaterina Svetikova in Ukraine in 1956. She married British artist Mitchel Barrett in 2000 and they moved to Vienna, Austria.

But four years later, she was convicted of fraud after posing as an oil company agent to trick victims into lending her $200,000.

Her passport was confiscated and she was banned from entering Austria for nearly a decade.

Mr. Barrett, now her former husband, said: ‘I was warned by friends to leave her. The next thing I knew, the police came to our apartment and arrested her.’ When asked about her fraud conviction, Ms Barrett’s lawyers denied that she had been arrested. Faced with evidence, they admitted the conviction but claimed it was overturned.

Ms Hutchcroft believes Ms Barrett owns the apartment in Monaco, which is now up for sale for £19.2 million. However, Ms Barrett denies owning the property and said she is a UK tax resident.

A representative said Ms Barrett had not admitted any liability by reaching a settlement with Ms Hutchcroft, that legal proceedings were “ongoing” and that she would comply with court orders “to the extent she is able to do so”.