Ekaterina Barrett in Israel: eyewitness alleges unpaid salon bill and threats

New allegations in Netanya

An anonymous source who says they witnessed the events firsthand alleges that Ekaterina Barrett gained the trust of a hairdresser in Netanya, obtained services under false pretences and left NIS10,000 unpaid. The account was supplied to The Meridian on 13 October 2026. The Meridian has not independently established the amount or whether deception occurred, and has not obtained the hairdresser’s own account or Barrett’s response to the salon-payment allegation.

The same source alleges that Barrett’s dogs were subsequently stolen and that she was threatened with physical violence. The source also says Barrett approached police with complaints about violence against her. These are attributed allegations; the police report supplied to The Meridian does not record a theft of dogs or a separate formal complaint about them.

What the police report records

The Meridian has reviewed a Hebrew-language police response report concerning an incident in Netanya on 4 September 2026. It was provided by an anonymous source, who says it came from an anonymous source within the police. The document’s authenticity and that provenance have not been independently verified. Barrett is named in the narrative. The officer’s account records a telephone conversation with a woman who alleged that Barrett had come to her hair salon and cheated her out of up to NIS6,000. This records an allegation relayed to the officer; it does not establish fraud or an enforceable debt.

The report also records an account that a man went to request payment, and Barrett’s statement that two people had assaulted her. The narrative describes an officer attending the incident and recording the parties’ accounts. It does not establish that an assault occurred or show the outcome of any investigation or proceedings.

There is an unresolved difference between the NIS10,000 reported by the eyewitness and the sum of up to NIS6,000 in the police report. No matching public Facebook post has been verified for this article, and the claims about stolen dogs and threats remain dependent on the anonymous eyewitness’s account. Personal identifiers and the exact residential address in the report are withheld.

The London and Monaco background

For more than three decades, the Pandora Dress Agency in Knightsbridge has resold designer clothes to wealthy London shoppers, a short walk from Harrods. Its owner, Bridget Hutchcroft, took over the business in the late 1980s. In 2017 an occasional customer asked her for a small favour. What followed has since played out in courts in London and Monaco, with creditors pursuing the same woman in several other countries.

The customer was Ekaterina Barrett, described as 69 in the BBC’s March 2026 investigation, a woman often seen in Mayfair and Monaco who, in the BBC’s description, appeared to be a multimillionaire with a taste for high fashion, casinos and luxury boutiques. The background below is drawn from a BBC investigation by the journalist Vicky Baker for the podcast Fraudacious, from reporting by the Monaco news site NEWS.MC, and from the public court record.

…appears to rely on false and misleading information

Ekaterina Barrett, in an email to the BBC

A favour, then a loan

According to Hutchcroft’s account to the BBC, the two women met when Barrett, struggling to park, asked her to look after her dogs while she went to Harrods. Hutchcroft began visiting Barrett’s Mayfair flat regularly. At the time, she told the BBC, she was recovering from a breakdown and had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

About three months after they met, Hutchcroft says, Barrett told her that her business affairs manager had died and asked for a short-term loan to cover a cash-flow problem. The requests continued and became more insistent. By Hutchcroft’s account the total exceeded £1m. She says the money came from a property sale and was meant for her grandson’s education, a tax bill and her retirement.

Friends intervened, and once her health had stabilised Hutchcroft realised how much she had transferred. The police told her it was a civil matter, so she sued.

Settlement, then a £1.6m judgment

Barrett countersued, saying that Hutchcroft owed her money, describing the allegations as “vexatious” and saying she had not known the extent of Hutchcroft’s mental health problems, the BBC reported.

In 2021 the case settled out of court. Barrett did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to pay £1m plus interest from the sale of her London flat, according to the BBC. Earlier reporting by NEWS.MC, citing the Daily Mail, put the settlement at £1.4m.

When the money did not arrive, the High Court issued a final judgment in 2022 that raised the debt to £1.6m including interest. Hutchcroft says she has received one payment of £100,000 and nothing since. Barrett’s Mayfair flat was later repossessed after she defaulted on the mortgage, the BBC reported.

Contempt of court

Hutchcroft’s lawyers turned to the court’s enforcement procedures. Under Part 71 of the Civil Procedure Rules, a person who owes money under a judgment can be ordered to attend court and answer questions on oath about their assets.

In July 2024 the High Court in London found Barrett in contempt. According to the BBC, she had lied under oath about her assets and submitted faked documents, including one bearing Hutchcroft’s forged signature. She was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended, and fined £100,000, payable by February 2025. The BBC reported in March 2026 that the fine had not been paid.

The case, Hutchcroft v Barrett [2024] EWHC 2168 (KB), has since been cited by the High Court in another judgment as an example of contempt “by giving deliberately false evidence on oath at a CPR Part 71 hearing”.

The Monaco cases

Barrett has also faced criminal proceedings in Monaco. Prosecutors accused her of stealing a pair of Balenciaga boots worth more than €1,000 from a luxury store in Monte Carlo in December 2024, relying on CCTV footage that they said showed her taking the boots into a fitting room and leaving without them. A second charge alleged that she took €1,550 from an acquaintance’s bag at the Hotel Métropole.

Her lawyer, Clyde Billard, sought a full acquittal, arguing that there was no proof and that she could afford the items. He said she had permission to take the money from the bag, which its owner, a personal stylist, disputed. The court found Barrett guilty on both charges and fined her €5,000. She is appealing.

Other creditors

Hutchcroft is not Barrett’s only creditor. Another former friend won a judgment of £2.7m ($3.6m) against her in Liechtenstein, and several creditors are pursuing unpaid debts, the BBC reported.

Barrett has also failed to pay the mortgage on an apartment in Monaco, and a court there has ruled that it will be seized and sold at auction, according to the BBC. In 2023 she said, through a representative, that settling the London case was not an admission of liability and that she would comply with court orders “in so far as she is able”, NEWS.MC reported. She also said then that she did not own a Monaco property that Hutchcroft believed was hers.

Hutchcroft is trying to enforce the London judgment in Liechtenstein, Austria, Monaco and Israel. In its investigation published on 15 March 2026, BBC News reported that she was seeking to force the sale of a property Barrett was believed to own in Israel.

Reported sighting in Israel

An anonymous eyewitness told The Meridian that they personally saw Barrett in Israel on 12 October 2026. The source also says that she remains in Israel as of 13 October 2026.

The Meridian has not independently corroborated the eyewitness account or confirmed Barrett’s current whereabouts.

Barrett’s response to the earlier reporting

Barrett declined the BBC’s request for an in-person interview. In an email, she said the reporting relied on false and misleading information supplied by hostile or malicious parties, and she questioned the fairness and accuracy of the BBC’s work. In Monaco she denied the theft accusations.

Whether Barrett cannot pay or will not pay remains an open question; Hutchcroft suspects the latter. The Monaco convictions are under appeal, and the London judgment debt remains largely unpaid, according to both the BBC and NEWS.MC.

Sources

1. Anonymous eyewitness: Firsthand account supplied on 13 October 2026, covering a personal sighting in Israel on 12 October, a claimed NIS10,000 unpaid salon bill in Netanya, alleged theft of dogs and threats of violence, and a reported approach to police. Identity withheld; account not independently corroborated.
2. Police response report — anonymous source: Hebrew-language report dated 4 September 2026, provided by an anonymous source who says it came from an anonymous source within the police. It records a salon-related allegation involving up to NIS6,000 and Barrett’s account that two people assaulted her. Authenticity, claimed provenance and subsequent case status have not been independently verified; personal identifiers withheld.
3. BBC News: An eccentric new friend entered her life. Then things took a strange, expensive turn (Vicky Baker, 15 March 2026)
4. NEWS.MC: High society scandal still unfolding in Monaco (20 March 2026)
5. NEWS.MC: Victim of alleged fraud searches for ‘friend’ in Monaco (6 June 2023)
6. High Court (Find Case Law, The National Archives): Grainful Holdings Ltd v Mineev [2025] EWHC 3356 (Comm), para 38, citing Hutchcroft v Barrett [2024] EWHC 2168 (KB)
7. BBC Studios / Novel: Fraudacious, podcast by Vicky Baker

Compiled by The Meridian News Desk from the sources listed above. Eyewitness accounts are attributed and their verification status is stated. Where sources give different figures, both are shown.