A determined landlady who helped bring McCarthy to justice was Lesley Grayson.

Having entrusted her property to him, she was relying on the rent from her Watford-based house to fund her new lifestyle in Alicudi.

But when the money never appeared, she returned to the UK to recover the £5,000 owed to her.

What followed was two years of fighting, during which she discovered she was not alone.

Spearheading a campaign against McCarthy, which involved appeals in the local press and on local radio, she found that over 90 people were owed money, totalling more than £100,000.

Among them were Ken and Pam Cotton, who lost £2,500. Mrs Cotton said: "We tried to get money out of Richard McCarthy, but he always came up with some lie to cover himself. We could not believe how many people phoned us. We heard such sad stories, including those about elderly ladies who needed the money to keep them in residential homes. It was just awful."

Malcolm Harrison, of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), was delighted a "rogue" letting agent had been bought to justice.

He said: "We urge people to use letting agents registered with ARLA, because our membership is achieved only by agents who demonstrate thorough knowledge and who conduct best management practice.

"We congratulate Lesley Grayson for doing something about McCarthy, because it was very much down to her determination that the police took this so seriously."