A “committed conman” who promised his girlfriend they would move into a £4.7 million house in Barnes before tricking her and others out of £90,000 has been found guilty of fraud.

Dane Lasse Hartmann, who went by the fake name Lars Petraus, claimed he was a successful international businessman and had been in the Danish special forces.

He also falsely claimed to have had been knighted in his home country.

In reality the 43-year-old, of Cardinals Way in Haringey, moved to the UK after being released from a Danish prison for scamming his own father out of large sums of money.

Many of his victims were caught out in a discounted wine package scam, which never materialised with Hartmann claiming they were “stuck in customs”.

His personal driver was promised £3,800 a month as well as £35,000 to buy a Mercedes. Hartmann then tricked the driver out of his entire savings of £2,500 as an investment in fake wine bonds.

The driver was later left out of pocket by £22,953 in wages, expenses and savings.

Hartmann was found guilty today (Thursday, April 6) at Snaresbrook Crown Court of 22 counts of fraud involving 20 people carried out between January 2014 and October 2015.

CPS reviewing lawyer Abiodun Kadri said: “Lasse Hartmann was a committed conman who had no qualms about tricking people he came into contact with out of large sums of money to pay rent on his expensive homes and support his gambling habit.

“The prosecution case, which included bad character evidence of Hartmann’s conviction for defrauding his own father in Denmark, showed that far from a mistake that spiralled out of control, this was a determined attempt to trick victim after victim.”