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One of the world's most wanted conmen who escaped from a British prison after targeting a string of top London hotels has finally been seized in the US.
Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt assumed the identities of clergymen, sheikhs and princes to steal millions of pounds in cash and jewellery from wealthy hotel guests for 15 years.
Following a series of thefts from luxury hotels including the Mandarin Oriental, the Dorchester, the Four Seasons and the Savoy, he was sentenced to three and a half years in jail.
But the jet-setting Colombian, who modelled himself on Raffles, the Victorian gentleman thief, absconded from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey in June 2005, after persuading staff to let him out of jail for a dental appointment. He has been on the run ever since.
The 33-year-old, who is also likened to US conman Frank Abagnale, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Catch Me If You Can, was finally arrested at a petrol station in Vermont. He was picked up by local police last Monday acting on a tip-off as he drank coffee and waited for a taxi.
His modus operandi was simple but effective. He would use a bar tab or guestbook at a hotel to uncover the identity of a wealthy guest. Having persuaded staff to let him into a room, he would call security and claim to have lost the codes to its safe.
At the Mandarin in Knightsbridge, Guzman-Betancourt, who is thought to have at least 10 aliases, stole £40,000 in jewellery. At the Dorchester he got away with £36,000 in clothes
and watches.
He escaped with £15,000 in cash at the Intercontinental on Park Lane and from there hired a Bentley for £400 to take him to Heathrow. There he blew £8,000 in the departure lounge using stolen cards.
Most recently, at a Toronto hotel, he claimed to be a guest who was locked out and persuaded a cleaner to give him a security card. He plundered valuables from several luxury suites.
Guzman-Betancourt is wanted in Canada, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela and he has also been linked to unsolved crimes in France and Switzerland.
The crimes he will now be charged with include a £160,000 robbery in Las Vegas in 2003. He is also wanted for theft in two other US states and is looking at a jail sentence of up to 20 years.
His arrest in London came after he was recognised strolling through a supermarket by an off-duty policeman in 2004.
After his escape from Standford Hill, Guzman-Betancourt was arrested in Dublin. An Irish judge ordered his extradition to France in December 2006 but his whereabouts since then have been unknown.
After his arrest by a US Border Patrol agent last week he claimed that he had inadvertently crossed the border from Canada to seek help for a broken-down car.
He was carrying a Spanish passport in the name of Jordi Ejarque-Rodriguez containing stamps from Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman.
His true identity was later revealed using fingerprint analysis.
His first reported con took place in 1993, when he was discovered on the runway at Miami airport claiming to be a 13-year-old orphan who had hung on to the plane's landing gear on a flight from Colombia.
His case became a local sensation, and he soon began receiving gifts and donations, until it was revealed that he was really 17, and that his parents were still alive.
Reader views (6)
No he is just a low-life crook. Plain and simple.
- Keith Price, Luton England
Good on him. Stealing from those rich hotels and their guests. I bet they all steal much more legally than him. It is just a shame he got caught in the US.
- Gabriel, London
its unfortunate that he has been caught... he certainly has a talent
- Donald D, London
>>absconded from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey in June 2005, after persuading staff to let him out of jail for a dental appointment.
They might have well given him keys to the front door! Stupidity knows no bounds in this country.
- Peter, Harrow, UK
Unfortunately for Juan The US don't play by the rules, the prisoner's rules. He'll get a real sentence in a real prison, end of his games for a long time. Here in tired old New Labour Britain, crims. rule OK?
- Martin, London
"persuading staff to let him out of jail for a dental appointment"
Presumably the staff in question are not staff any more? I can't believe that someone supposedly in charge of criminals is actually that stupid.
- Bob, Cheam
