Conman's hotel sting

A society conman is understood to have stolen hundreds of thousands of pounds by impersonating wealthy guests at the world's leading hotels.

In London alone Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt is known to have taken at least £150,000 in cash and jewellery after tricking staff at hotels including the Dorchester, the Savoy and the Lanesborough.

The full scale of his deception is still emerging today as police forces throughout the world compare records over similar crimes in other countries including Russia, Japan and America where police in Las Vegas issued an arrest warrant for him.

Scotland Yard sources say Guzman-Betancourt - who claims to be the son of a Colombian diplomat - was a prolific criminal who had been active for at least seven years and who traded on his good looks and charisma to pull off audacious robberies. He is an expert linguist.

The source said: "We may never know how much he took. He went all over the world tricking staff at all the best hotels you can imagine. He enjoyed a lucrative life."

He used his income for luxuries including chauffeur driven Bentleys and shopping sprees at haut couture boutiques in Paris - all the while leading an apparently blameless life on a council estate in Lisson Grove, north-west London.

Details of his extraordinary career emerged after he appeared at Southwark Corown Court and admitted charges to offences at the Dorchester and the Mandarin Oriental.

The 29-year-old would claim he had lost his room key and forgotten his safe code.

Unsuspecting staff, on whom he would lavish big tips as he impersonated rich guests, would let him in, unlock the security box, then leave him to rif le through his victims' belongings.

Today Guzman-Betancourt is behind bars after admitting various counts of burglaries, six deceptions and possessing two forged passports.

The criminal first came to police attention in 1998 after pulling off four hotel burglaries in London, but quickly skipped bail to return to crime.

A year later he was detained again, but because he was using one of his alter egos managed to slip through police fingers with no more than a magistrates court fine for attempted credit card deception. Two years later he was arrested again, in France, after spending a small fortune at Paris's top boutiques.

But he was later freed by mistake and it was not until he was spotted "purely by chance" on 20 December, after more raids on top London hotels, that police finally caught up with him.

Investigating officer DS Andy Swindells, who with DC Christian Plowman had been hunting him for months, spotted Guzman-Betancourt on an off-duty stroll through Mayfair.

Judge Peter Fingret told Guzman-Betancourt he would be sentenced on a future date.