An Italian newspaper has dubbed Larissa Watson the Portofino Pirate following the incident. Photo / Supplied
An Italian newspaper has dubbed Larissa Watson the Portofino Pirate following the incident. Photo / Supplied
A British woman has been arrested in Italy after allegedly trying to steal a yacht in one of the country's most exclusive resorts.
Police said Larissa Watson, an award-winning designer and painter, nonchalantly climbed aboard the €150,000 ($250,000) Sangermani Daycruiser in the upmarket port of Portofino on the Italian Riviera.
She found the keys on the vessel, which was owned by a local boat rental company, and started up the engine.
The 50-year-old, described by the Italian police as "tall, blonde and refined", was about to head out of the picturesque port, which is lined with pastel-coloured houses and popular with tycoons and celebrities, when she was spotted by a harbour worker, who became suspicious.
He ran along the dock and just managed to jump aboard in time, grabbing the keys from the ignition and steering the vessel back to its mooring.
He then called the port authority and the local Carabinieri paramilitary police, who arrested her.
Watson, the creative director of a fashion brand as well as a painter textile designer, was charged with theft after the incident on Tuesday and is due to appear in a court in Genoa next month.
"Nothing like this has happened before in Portofino, it's very unusual," Captain Simone Clemente, of the Carabinieri, told the Telegraph.
"By looking through her Facebook and Instagram accounts we found that she had done navigation courses in the past and knew how to handle a boat. She nearly made it out of the harbour."
Police asked her if she wanted to contact her family but Watson, who has four children, said she would rather not.
The Carabinieri found that she had been in Italy since February and had been reported to police in various parts of the country for leaving hotels and restaurants without paying.
She allegedly left an unpaid hotel bill in Milan, fled a restaurant without paying in Ventimiglia, on Italy's border with France, and ran off from a hotel in Reggio Calabria in the far south of the country.
On at least two occasions, the police were called.
Larissa Watson. Photo / Facebook
"The double life of Larissa Watson seems to have come straight out of a film," La Rivieria, an Italian newspaper, commented. "In Britain she's an esteemed artist, in Italy a thief who's been under scrutiny by the police for some time."
During her travels in Italy during the last four months she posted numerous photos on her Facebook account, taken in Rome, Sicily, Emilia-Romagna and the along the Riviera.
In March, she posted an apparently old photo of herself holding a silver trophy and wearing an elegant blue evening dress.
"Happy times when I had decent clothes to wear, a great car to drive, a home and a clean, comfortable bed every night - offshore racing - winning in style!" she wrote.
In another, she said she had been thrown out of a party in Bologna featuring the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver "by an officious little girl".
Last weekend she went to a beauty salon in the town of Santa Margherita Ligure, close to Portofino, but refused to pay her bill of €150.
The police were informed and she was charged with fraud.
Watson's whereabouts are unknown but the police said that if she failed to turn up for the court appearance in July, an international warrant would be issued for her arrest.
Born in Canterbury, Kent, she moved as a child to Belfast and attended the University of Ulster's School of Art and Design.
She has exhibited her art and textile design in Britain, the United States, Europe and Japan.
