A Russian tycoon ’s wife who lives on London’s Billionaires Row is facing jail for stealing a £250 statue from a Chelsea auction house.

Margarita Sofianova, 55, slipped the bronze figurine of a half-dressed woman into her handbag while wandering around the Lots Road Auction Galleries last February.

With the stolen statue, a reproduction of a 19th-century work, sticking out of her handbag, she was caught on CCTV calmly walking out to her hired Range Rover parked outside to drop off the loot. She then returned to continue browsing through lots on sale, Isleworth crown court heard.

Sofianova, the wife of Russian-born tycoon Vasileios Omarov, was identified as the thief by auctioneer Nick Carter, who had known her for a decade as a regular customer.

She had been banned in the past after a dispute with the Lots Road management.

Despite being caught on CCTV, Sofianova insisted in court that she had not been at the auction house that day and was a victim of mistaken identity. But the Range Rover was traced by police back to her £7 million home off the exclusive Bishops Avenue in East Finchley.

She denied theft but was found guilty on Friday and could be jailed when she is sentenced later this month.

The court heard Sofianova had been caught shoplifting four times in the past, including stealing goods from Harrods, taking a £2,000 Prada dress during a £9,000 spending spree and pocketing a scarf from the Hermès store in Knightsbridge.

She also narrowly avoided jail in 2012 when a four-week prison sentence, for hiding her wealth on a legal aid application, was changed on appeal to a £25,000 fine.

Prosecutor Bartholomew O’Toole said the statue, worth about £250, has not been recovered. He said although it was clear Sofianova was “not a wicked person”, the evidence against her was “overwhelming”.

After she was convicted by the jury, Judge Jonathan Ferris agreed to release her on bail if she surrendered her passport and her husband put up a £25,000 surety.

But Mr Omarov failed to bring the passport to court, claiming he spent three hours unsuccessfully trying to get a taxi to take him to north London to collect it.

The judge then remanded Sofianova in custody until sentencing on June 22, telling her prison was a “real possibility”. He said she was “a real flight risk” but could be freed on bail if her husband manages to produce her passport.