Rothschild claim fraudster guilty

The pair first met in a coffee shop in Cheltenham in June 2003

A man who claimed to be financier Edmund De Rothschild's illegitimate son has been convicted of conning a woman out of more than £300,000.

Alexander Marc de Rothschild-Hatton, 49 and from Cirencester, was found guilty of seven counts of obtaining money from divorcee Christine Handy by deception.

The jury at Bristol Crown Court could not reach a verdict on three counts of obtaining property by deception.

De Rothschild-Hatton is due to be sentenced on Wednesday morning.

Unemployed De Rothschild-Hatton of Bowling Green Road, Cirencester, claimed to be an Oxford-educated international financier as part of his ruse to bleed more than £300,000 from Ms Handy, Bristol Crown Court was told.

The jury heard De Rothschild-Hatton told "preposterous" lies to Ms Handy who had her fourth child with the defendant, in an attempt to take considerable sums of money from her.

De Rothschild-Hatton first approached the 45-year-old in June 2003 in a coffee shop in Cheltenham where he told her he had been "observing her for some time" and offered her financial advice with her divorce.

Rape conviction

She told the court De Rothschild-Hatton had paid "not a penny" back of the hundreds of thousands of pounds she lent him.

On Tuesday he was found guilty of seven counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

The jury could not reach verdicts for three charges of obtaining property by deception and was discharged. The remaining counts will lie on file.

It can also now be reported that De Rothschild-Hatton was convicted last May of raping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

An order prohibiting reporting of this conviction was lifted by Judge Julian Lambert after verdicts were delivered on the deception charges.