Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can
A French conman, who lives a luxurious life of fast cars and fast women by pretending to be a rich Saudi prince, has managed to elude Australian police.
Now believed to be in New Zealand, 26-year-old Abdelkarim Serhani initially fled Down Under to escape authorities in France and Belgium, but Aussie police caught up with him after he allegedly conned $42,000 of freebies out of a top hotel on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays.
Already wanted for racking up dodgy bills in Cairns and Airlie Beach, Serhani managed to collect huge room charges, with hotels once again believing his credit would be good. He also handed out massive tips, bottles of Dom Perignon champagne and turned up to nightclubs with bodyguards at his side.
Police finally caught up with him when he tried to escape to the mainland by helicopter.
However the Frenchman, despite being bailed with his passport confiscated, managed to skip the country by getting a boat to Indonesia.
Reports suggest he also stole $2,000 and a mobile phone from the ship’s captain. And not one to shy away from the limelight, Serhani has since posted a video to the Aussie media, showing him living it up in a luxurious Bali hotel while delivering the message, “if you want me, catch me if you can,” to the police.
Described by those who have met him as “flamboyant” and “enjoying the attention,” it was clearly no accident that the phrase used by Serhani is also the name of the 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film, in which the actor played real life fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr, who managed to con his way around the world for five years, using numerous fake identities during the 1960s.
