An Italian bookseller who stole a signed Harry Potter edition worth £1,675 in a “professional, targeted operation” has avoided jail.



Rudolf Schonegger, 55, switched the rare copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for another book at a bookshop in central London on New Year’s Eve.

CCTV showed him browsing Hatchards before making the switch while a staff member had her back turned. A copy of Late Call by Angus Wilson was found in the place of the Potter book.

Schonegger was found guilty of theft and two charges of handling stolen goods after a trial at Hendon magistrates court last week.

During a hearing at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday, he was given a 26-week prison sentence for the theft, suspended for 24 months, and four-week custodial sentences for each other charge to run concurrently, also suspended for 24 months.

He was ordered to pay Hatchards £1,675, and the booksellers Peter Ellis and Peter Harrington, who bought the stolen goods, a total of £410 for money lost.

Robert Simpson, prosecuting, said: “The aggravating factors – it would seem this was a fully professional, targeted operation. It is not a random theft, it is a theft of a valuable first edition book.”

Just hours after taking the Harry Potter book, Schonegger stole a valuable copy of Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy at a popup store in Fortnum & Mason on the same road, an offence for which he was separately convicted this year.

He also sold a stolen bound copy of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, worth £700, on 21 December and a stolen first edition of Pincher Martin by William Golding, worth £150, the same day or the following day.

It was not suggested that Schonegger was responsible for stealing either book.

Schonegger was barred from visiting Hatchards for 24 months, banned from visiting Peter Harrington and told he could not go to Cecil Court in west London where there are numerous bookshops.

He must also pay a victim surcharge and prosecution costs.

The trial heard the copy of Pincher Martin was first noticed missing from Hatchards on the morning of New Year’s Eve, while the Harry Potter book, which had been on display with a sticker stating its four-figure value, vanished by mid-afternoon.

Helen Mills, the secondhand book manager at Hatchards, told the trial that the Harry Potter book was rare because JK Rowling did not sign many. The book has yet to be recovered.

Schonegger said he had been trying to start a real estate business in the UK since 2016, but was unable to give examples of the work he had been doing and still lives at a hotel in Bayswater, west London.

In mitigation, Harun Matin, defending, said: “It is hard to argue that there wasn’t sophisticated planning and he accepts that.”

He said his client had “learned his lesson”, adding: “He is someone who has been a successful businessman in the past but he has fallen on hard times.”