‘Aristocrat’ arrested after trickery

November 27, 2009  •  Lead2  •  0 Comments

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A BOGUS aristocrat who “seduced women and tricked them out of their savings” has been arrested in Bilbao.

The 47-year-old Spaniard spoke with a refined English accent and convinced a trail of women he was an upper-class statesman and the heir to a vast fortune.

Once the affair was under way the trickster would reveal his rightful inheritance was in the midst of a lengthy legal battle, following a family feud.

Using the same tale every time, the phoney aristocrat would use promises of marriage to persuade women to hand over up to 700,000 euros “to help pay for his lawyers¨.

Police swooped on Monday after tracking him down to a hotel in Bilbao and opened an investigation into the case.

They had already been investigating three cases but believe he may have duped two or three more women that he was dating at the same time as the others.

One woman parted with a huge sum to fund their projected wedding at his supposed ancestral home in England.

After dishing out the money, she was later contacted by a girl claiming to be the fraudster’s daughter saying that he had died suddenly.

Police said he wooed his lovers at the most fancy restaurants and hotels along Spain´s northern coast.

A police spokesperson said: “He was very clever and left no trail. It was almost as if he did not exist.

“Yet he was able to give a very convincing performance and appeared to live in style.”

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