A fake lawyer, who claimed to represent dictators, warlords and killers, is set to cash in on his own notoriety on his release from jail.
Giovanni Di Stefano, known as “the Devil’s Advocate”, said his clients included Saddam Hussein, Harold Shipman, Gary Glitter, Ian Brady and a host of celebrities.
The conman, who it transpired had no legal qualifications, is serving a 22-year prison sentence after being found guilty of a string of charges for fraud and deception.
But one of the country’s top barristers, Jerome Lynch QC, has warned that when Di Stefano is released – which could be as early as next year – he will return to the limelight.
Lynch, who worked with Di Stefano on a number of legal cases including one involving the blackmail of a senior member of the Royal Family, said: “There’s not a chance of Giovanni ever going quietly. I suspect that when he is released he will want to make television programmes about his life.
“He will seek to do things which will put him back into the limelight.”
But he said the fraudster, who joined the board of Dundee Football Club in 2003, would have made a skilled lawyer.
He added: “It’s a great shame he didn’t feel he could study and become a lawyer. He would have been a good one. He found problems with the law and identified issues for his clients.”
Di Stefano, who was born in Italy and moved to Northamptonshire as a child, first made his name in legal and media circles after court victories for property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten and gangster John Palmer.
Van Hoogstraten had been jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of the manslaughter of a business rival. But with Di Stefano’s help, his legal team successfully argued the judge at his trial had misdirected the jury. His retrial collapsed and van Hoogstraten was freed.
For Palmer, Di Stefano helped defeat a £33million confiscation order after arguing the papers served on him referred to the wrong section of an Act.
Di Stefano went on to represent – or claim to represent – famous figures including former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, ex-Zambian president Robert Mugabe and Serbian paramilitary leader Arkan. He said he was part of Iraqi dictator Hussein’s legal team and had met and advised Osama bin Laden.
He also claimed to represent serial killer Shipman, paedophile Glitter and Moors murderer Brady. Other clients he claimed to have included train robber Ronnie Briggs and vicious villain Charles Bronson.
Di Stefano, who falsely said he studied law at Cambridge and in Italy, appeared on TV news channels across the world to promote his work.
In 2003, he joined the board of Dundee and promised to bring in high-profile football stars. He attracted Italy international Fabrizio Ravanelli to the team but left the next year after the investment he promised failed to materialise.
Di Stefano was arrested in Majorca in 2011 and brought back to the UK, where in 2013 he was found guilty of 25 charges of fraud, deception and money laundering. He falsely claimed at his trial he had been recruited by MI6 to build a reputation as a lawyer to gain access to “persons of interest”.
His life story is being told in a new documentary, Devil’s Advocate: The Mostly True Story Of Giovanni Di Stefano, which premieres on Sky and Now TV on February 15.
Detective Jerry Walters said: “You can’t have a situation where people are purporting to be lawyers, heaping misery on people, defrauding victims. Ironically, his love of the media was the thing that was his undoing.”
