A “ruthless” thief caught red-handed trying to steal Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour’s mobile phone as she bought a drink at a Kensington café has been jailed.
Teenager Zacariah Boulares sidled up behind the 27-year-old star at Joe and the Juice and tried to quietly swipe the handset.
But he was quickly confronted by Ms Chenneour who heard the iPhone 14 being snatched, and then wrestled to the ground by her ex-partner Carlo Kurcishi.
Mr Kurcishi held on to the teenager and feared his life was in danger, as he was met with shouts that he would be “f***ed up” and “stabbed”.
The Bridgerton actress told Isleworth crown court she is now considering quitting London.
Boulares, now 18, was branded “dangerous” and “ruthless” by a probation officer, who said the prolific thief had “smirked” when told he had stolen from a blind woman in a separate crime.
On Tuesday, Judge Martin Edmunds KC, the Recorder of Kensington and Chelsea, sentenced Boulares to 22 months in prison.
He said Boulares had targeted wealthy areas for “rich pickings”, in a “systematic pattern of stealing from people as they are enjoying a meal or refreshment at a restaurant.
“You seem to be plagued by an attitude that if people can afford nice things, then you can take them”, he said.
“It’s clear you are completely willing to use violence when challenged, and it’s a matter of the deepest regret that individuals have been left feeling they don’t want to come to London or they should leave London.”
Boulares flicked a middle figure gesture towards the press benches as he was being led away, prompting Judge Edmunds to have him dragged back into court.
Boulares suggested “lies” had been printed about him in the press, and the judge said the use of the obscene gesture “confirms his lack of remorse”.
The teen, who previously threatened TV star Aled Jones with a machete in a terrifying street robbery, admitted the theft of Ms Chenneour’s phone, an assault on Mr Kurcishi, the theft of a woman’s rucksack as she dined at Pizza Pilgrims, and the theft of a blind woman’s handbag.
Ms Chenneour said the ordeal has now left her considering quitting London as her home.
She told the court that she had previously fallen to an assault, leaving her traumatised and struggling to leave her own home.
She said the phone theft “feels like a big set back in my journey to improve my mental health”.
“I am extremely shaken and cannot stop replaying the incident in my own head and am extremely worried that I might see both of the suspects again and as a result be put in the same danger that I felt I was in during the incident”, she said.
The actress described “emotional shutdown” she experienced in the aftermath, as well as a lingering fear that she could be targeted again.
“I really like going to Joe and the Juice but am nervous about being there again, and have already begun considering leaving London”, she added.
Mr Kurcishi told the court he feared his life was in danger during the struggle with Boulares.
Boulares pleaded guilty to theft of the phone and common assault in the Joe and the Juice incident on February, an earlier theft of a handbag in Pizza Pilgrims on January 30, and the theft of a rucksack at a branch of Five Guys on February 18, a few days before his 18th birthday.
He has a long list of previous offences as a teenager, including an incident when he threatened TV star Aled Jones with a machete in order to steal his £17,000 Rolex watch.
He was then aged 16 and could not legally be identified, as he was sentenced to a two-year detention and training order for the attack on Songs or Praise presenter Jones in west London in July 2023.
Judge Edmunds noted that Boulares has been repeatedly sentenced in the past in the youth courts, but they had failed to turn him away from crime.
Footage played in court showing Boulares enter the branch of Joe and the Juice as Ms Chenneour and Mr Kurcishi were already inside and ordering drinks.
A hooded Boulares heads to the back of the store, and later is seen lurking behind Ms Chenneour, who plays Clara Livingston in Netflix’s Bridgerton.
At the moment he leans along the counter to pick up her phone, the actress turns around and Mr Kurcishi also saw what was unfolding.
“Mr Kurcishi detained the defendant on the floor of the cafe for some period of time”, said prosecutor Alex Cullen.
He said Boulares had an accomplice who tries to break him free from Mr Kurcishi’s grasp, as Ms Chenneour stands over them.
She uses her arm to block Boulares from fleeing, and the phone falls to the ground. She then picks it up and uses it to strike the thief as he struggles.
Boulares was eventually let go by Mr Kurcishi. He and his accomplice managed to escape before police arrived, in a confusion over whether the cafe doors had been locked.
Ms Chenneour has previously talked about how she was left with concussion from the incident, and her pet dog was also traumatised.
On January 30 this year, Boulares stole Akira Morgan’s bag as she sat enjoying a meal with a friend outside a branch of Pizza Pilgrims on Kingly Street, near Carnaby Street.
The court heard she realised midway through her meal that the bag had gone, and when she logged on to her online banking app she could see spending on her card in nearby shops and an attempt to withdraw money at a cashpoint.
CCTV shows Boulares grabbed the bag from under the table before handing it off to an accomplice.
The victim, 31, who was visiting London, told the court she feels “violated” and now fears that the thief will come to her home to “retaliate”.
“The suspect has access to all parts of my life”, she said. “My driving licence has my address and I was worried that they would find me and retaliate to me calling the police.
“I also felt vulnerable as they had my name and date of birth. I don’t feel safe to go back to London and didn’t want to leave my house for a while just in case.”
The third theft happened when Netta O’Carroll, who is blind, was enjoying a meal at Five Guys in Thurloe Street, Kensington with her husband, also blind, and their ten-year-old son.
The woman, 50, realised her handbag had gone when she went to get a bottle of water our of it for her husband.
Police officers patrolling nearby spotted Boulares, a known thief, and chased him, and he then abandoned the handbag with the contents intact.
She told the court she is “extremely shocked and anxious” and fears their family home will now be burgled as her handbag contained personal details.
“I could not understand why somebody would steal a bag from two blind people”, she said.
Accompanying his guilty plea, Boulares said he did not know Ms O’Carroll was blind at the time.
In the attack on Aled Jones, Boulares threatened to chop off the TV star’s arm in a bid to steal his Rolex Daytona.
A court heard he shouted “Give me your f***king Rolex or I will cut your arm off” when Jones was out with his son, in an incident caught on CCTV.
In sessions with probation ahead of sentencing, Boulares was said to have “smirked” when talking about stealing from a blind woman, and he has been assessed as highly likely to offend again once set free.
The probation officer considered him “very dangerous, skilled at using violence to cause confusion, terror, and control, and intelligent and ruthless”, and Boulares had also commented: “If people can afford to wear nice things, then I can take them.”
“The defendant does not recognise the value of money, and has little life experience of working hard to achieve something that he wants”, the officer wrote.
“Instead, he admits that when things get hard or he encounters an obstacle, he reverts back to offending because this is what he knows, and it is easier.
“In my view, he experiences feelings of jealousy seeing others with expensive or designer items that he cannot attain, and so he seeks to take it by force. He demonstrates strong pro-criminal attitutdes and glamorises criminality.”
His barrister, Maddison Fisher, said Boulares feels “great shame” after news of his crimes was published online and on social media.
He has past convictions for robbery, assault, possession of a knife, and making threats, the court heard.
Boulares, of Fawns Manor Close, Feltham had previously robbed a 78-year-old man of a gold Rolex worth £20,000 at Paddington station in May 2023.
The judge is due to consider on a later date a criminal behaviour order, covering his behaviour in public a possible exclusion zone on some areas of London.
When he was arrested, Boulares jumped out of a first floor window at his home in a failed bid to escape capture.
