‘Shameless’ fraud fashion designer jailed for duping young men into £34K cash handouts

A serial fraudster, who tricked men into thinking he was a successful fashion designer to get them to hand over thousands of pounds in cash, has been jailed.

The Met, Thames Valley Police and West Midlands Police worked together to investigate Italian career conman Paolo Aldorasi, 39, from Carnwath Road, Fulham.

It followed a series of similar offences where Aldorasi approached young men and befriended them, before pressuring them to withdraw large sums of cash from cash machines.

He pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to 15 counts of fraud by false representation and sentenced on Tuesday, at the same court, to two years and nine months’ imprisonment.

He received a reduced sentence due to his early guilty plea.

At sentencing, the judge called Aldorasi shameless and a confidence trickster who left humiliation and misery in his wake.

He also added how many of Aldorasi’s victims now feel shame and are cynical and less trusting of strangers.

Detective Constable Christine Metz, of the Central West Command Unit said: “Aldorasi is a career criminal who thinks nothing of using dishonesty to make a gain for himself, with absolutely no regard to the lasting impact his crimes have had on his victims.

“He has a history of convictions in the UK and US and is also known to Australian authorities, all for similar offending. The series of frauds began on June 17, 2020 in Kensington Road, South Kensington, with further reports across London, Coventry and Oxford through to November 2021.

The method of each was identical. Aldorasi would spot a target in the street, typically aged in their late teens or early 20s, and tell them he was an Italian fashion designer.

 

He would invite them into his expensive car and give them items of clothing before saying he had gambled all his money away the night before and urgently needed a cash loan to pay his car rental at the airport that afternoon. He would harass and pressure the victims, who were often newly arrived in the country and naïve, before driving them to a cash machine.

Some would trust that they would be paid back, while others felt too intimidated by him to say no.

Aldorasi would then take the cash and the victims would not see or hear from him again. Aldorasi was arrested in November 2020 for the London offences – which took place at Shaftesbury Avenue, Drayton Gardens and Gloucester Road – and released under investigation. However, he then went on to commit further offences in Oxford and later Coventry.

The total amount of money taken was nearly £34,000, with victims handing over between £500 and £8,000 at a time.

Pictured top Paolo Aldorasi Picture: The Met