Contact Us

Case Evaluation
close

    Manhattan socialite caught stealing $11,000 worth of scarves

    Manhattan socialite caught stealing $11,000 worth of scarves

    The New York Post
    By DAN MANGAN

    Last Updated: 7:03 AM, June 16, 2011

    Posted: 1:41 AM, June 16, 2011

    A beautiful Manhattan socialite who once caught Prince Andrew’s amorous eye has gone from the catwalk to the perp walk after allegedly shoplifting an $11,000 fur-lined scarf from a ritzy Connecticut retailer.

    Polish-born fashion designer Beata Boman, 38, was busted at around 3:45 p.m. Monday for filching the fancy neckware from Richards of Greenwich, cops said.

    Security at the posh Greenwich Avenue shop saw her leave with the scarf, which still bore an $11,000 price tag, police said.

    The security director followed Boman and called cops as she walked up Greenwich Avenue to a Starbucks at the end of the block, said Police Lt. Kraig Gray.

    Boman ducked into the coffee shop, but quickly walked out and back toward Richards, where she was stopped by a police officer and “admitted that she stole [the scarf] and was going to return it,” a police report said.

    Her lawyer Mark Sherman said the arrest was a “mistake” — claiming she unwittingly stuffed the scarf into her handbag after becoming distressed during a call with a friend “about to have brain surgery.”

    “Anybody who knows Beata knows she has no need and no reason to steal anything,” said Sherman, whose client is due to appear in Stamford Superior Court next Monday.

    An ex-model, Boman was spied at a French Riviera party in 2008 deep in conversation with Britain’s Prince Andrew after he affectionately kissed her.

    “It was clear by the way they greeted each other and their body language that they knew each other already,” said a witness cited by the Daily Mail.

    Last year, Boman moved from London to the East Side of Manhattan and launched Beata B, a fur-friendly fashion line.

    Sherman said she has always been a model citizen.

    “There was no crime here, because there was no intent” to steal, he said.

    Sherman said Boman was “preoccupied” on the phone, “consoling a friend about to have brain surgery and, understandably, forgot she was carrying the scarf.”

    It was only when she arrived at Starbucks and opened her bag, Sherman said, that Boman realized she had it — and then she promptly left to return it.

    “This is a woman who, as a survivor of brain surgery herself, regularly donates time and money to several New York-based charities,” Sherman said.