Catch him if you can? They finally did

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This article was published 30/09/2009 (6030 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — A prolific international con man and master thief — who uses his hypnotizing charm to plunder wealthy guests at luxury hotels in the world’s leading cities — has been arrested while fleeing Canada.

Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt was arrested by a U.S. Border Patrol agent as he waited for a taxi at a gas station in Derby Line, Vt., directly across from the Canadian border. Although giving a different name and claiming he unwittingly crossed the border after his car broke down in Quebec, a fingerprint check revealed him to be the silver-tongued thief, authorities say.

"He was very polite and friendly and definitely had a charming personality," said the cashier working at the gas station, requesting her name not be published.

Nabbing Guzman-Betancourt, 33, is a considerable feat.

He has eluded police in a dozen countries by donning compelling identities, from rag-a-muffin orphan to parish priest, Arab billionaire to airline employee.

He is remembered both for one of crime’s most indulgent getaways — fleeing in a chauffeur-driven Bentley coupe — and for talking his way out of a British prison where he was incarcerated.

His deceptive stunts go back to at least to 1993, when he tumbled onto the runway of Miami airport, claiming to be a 13-year-old orphan who had hugged the plane’s landing gear for the flight from Colombia. He became a local celebrity and was showered with donations and gifts until his story unravelled. He was really 17 and his parents alive.

Since then he has led a life of fraud and plunder spanning the globe. Handsome and charming with a warm smile, he is considered a gentleman bandit akin to Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in the movie Catch Me If You Can.

He developed a remarkably successful modus operandi.

Visiting some of the world’s leading hotels he assumed the identity of a well-heeled guest, convinced staff to let him into the room of the person he was pretending to be. He then phoned security from inside the room and said he had forgotten the combination to the safe. Helpful staff opened it for him and he made off with cash, credit cards, passports, designer clothes and jewellery.

He pulled the stunt over and over again.

His tally was notable. At The Dorchester in London, for instance, he pretended to be a billionaire from Bahrain and took $85,000 in cash and goods.

In Las Vegas, he is wanted after $380,000 in jewelry and cash was stolen from the room of a British businessman who was enjoying the spa at the Four Seasons hotel.

It was after cleaning out a room at London’s Intercontinental that he hired a chauffeur and a Bentley for his escape to Heathrow airport. There, he used the freshly stolen card to buy a first-class ticket to Paris, where he binge-shopped.

He is linked to similar thefts at hotels in London, Paris, Toronto, Las Vegas, Geneva, Dublin, Tokyo and others.

He was good but not flawless. Twice he was arrested in Europe, but both times hid his identity long enough to escape, authorities said.

Then, in 2004, the head of the hotel crimes unit with London’s Scotland Yard was off-duty when he spotted a man who looked like the thief he had seen on surveillance videos. He arrested Guzman-Betancourt.

He was sentenced to 3 1/2 years, which he was serving on an island prison when he convinced authorities he should see a dentist without an escort. He never returned.

Ten days later, he visited Dublin’s most expensive hotel, talked his way into a room and stole credit cards, jewellery and cash and went on a shopping spree, spending $140,000 within hours.

 

— Canwest News Service