PR guru in battle with five-star Mayfair hotel over £20k stolen suitcase

A public relations guru is locked in a dispute with a five-star Mayfair hotel over a payout she is claiming for her stolen suitcase packed with valuables.

Swiss PR executive Carole Kittner’s crystal-encrusted suitcase, containing £20,000 of jewellery and designer clothes, was taken from the lobby minutes after she arrived at Brown’s Hotel.

Rebecca Callinan, 37, is facing jail after admitting stealing the bag, which included boots by Yves Saint Laurent, a Hermès scarf and golden bangles.

She was caught when she turned on Mrs Kittner’s laptop, revealing it was at her flat in Highbury.

But Mrs Kittner, who is eight months’ pregnant, said she had not been able to recover all the items and was still awaiting an insurance payout from the hotel — where a room for two with suite benefits can cost £1,550 a night. She added that the stressful ordeal was prompting her to consider hiring a lawyer.

She told the Standard: “I feel so helpless. I am not entirely clear on English law and I know these things take time, but these things have their limits. I was very hurt. I recovered a few belongings [but] still feel very, very much injured.

“It has been more than two months and nothing has been done. I’d like to enjoy my last few weeks before I give birth but I am fighting with the hotel insurance and feel quite alone.”

Westminster magistrates heard Mrs Kittner had been in London for a meeting with publisher Condé Nast, discussing the placement of designer brands in magazines like GQ and Vanity Fair. Prosecutor Julian Pozimski said Callinan was seen on CCTV entering the hotel on the evening of September 3 this year, picking up the suitcase and leaving.

Mrs Kittner said she had just given her bag to a staff member. “I was very much in shock. I’d arrived 10 minutes before. Normally I never give my bag to anyone. I know it’s not their fault, but I’m shocked it could happen in a five-star hotel like Brown’s.” She had to fly home to Geneva without her diabetes medication and was signed off work after breaking down in tears at the doctor’s.

Stuart Johnson, managing director of Brown’s in Albemarle Street, said the hotel was dealing with Mrs Kittner’s case “professionally and confidentially ... we are in communication with her”.

At this month’s hearing, magistrates sent the case to Southwark crown court on a date to be set for Callinan, now in Bury St Edmunds, to be sentenced.