Raffles-style conman runs out of luck in Dublin

An international conman has been remanded in custody in Dublin after stealing cash and jewels from the city's five-star Merrion hotel.

The Raffles-style professional thief targets luxury hotels by assuming the identity of guests to get into their rooms.

He was detained last Thursday for the theft of cash, jewellery and a credit card from a bedroom safe and appeared before Dublin District Court on Friday (24 June).

The 29-year-old Columbian, known to police as Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt or Gonzalo Zapater Vives, escaped from Standford Hill Prison in Kent on 6 June after being sentenced in April to six-and-a-half years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to stealing cash and jewellery worth 40,000 from London's Mandarin Oriental hotel in May 2001, and stealing 36,000 from the Dorchester in December 2004.

Another 14 burglary offences were taken into consideration.

A spokesman for the Irish Gardai said: "We will have to have our pound of flesh first. Then it is up to the British authorities. I assume they will seek to extradite him."

Guzman-Betancourt's London victims over the years have included the Lanesborough, Four Seasons, InterContinental, Grosvenor House, Savoy, and Royal Garden hotels.

Betancourt has been sought by police in the UK, USA and France and is also believed to have committed crimes in other countries, including Russia.