A new documentary highlights the crimes committed by a fake lawyer to trick “desperate and vulnerable” victims into believing he was an actual legal professional.
Giovanni di Stefano, 57, became known as the Devil’s Advocate for taking on ‘unwinnable’ cases with a client list including road rage killer Kenneth Noye and timeshare fraudster John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer.
The fraudster won some cases despite not having any legal training. His high-flying legal career ended abruptly when he was convicted on 25 counts including fraud, deception and money laundering. This occurred between 2001 and 2011.
New three-part documentary series Devil’s Advocate: The Mostly True Story of Giovanni di Stefano is set to be released on Sky Documentaries on 15 February at 9pm and will explore Giovanni’s crimes.
The Telegraph’s Director Sam Hobkinson said that he used lies to get very close the truth…
‘Everyone had their questions about this guy – he turns up, he wins cases, but he has no background.
‘People had questions about his legal credentials yet nothing happened.’
The crimes of Giovanni di Stefano, 57, who duped ‘desperate and vulnerable victims’ into thinking he was a bona fide legal professional have been highlighted in a new documentary series set to air on Sky
Giovanni was born in Petrella Tifernina, central Italy. He moved to England as a young boy to attend Wollaston High School in Northamptonshire.
The family moved into a council house in Irchester and Giovanni began calling himself John after he was bullied at school about his nationality.
However his teachers and classmates remembered him as a showman who would try to win popularity with humour.
After leaving school, he worked as a waiter at London’s Savoy Hotel before moving Cambridge where he found a job as a lab technician.
His first wife Tanja, whom he had married in 1978 was his second. Fathered four children.
It was then he began to exaggerate the truth, claiming he had a PhD from Cambridge University in law and saying he had earned a £200 million fortune by importing videotapes from Hong Kong.
He became known as the Devil’s Advocate for taking on ‘unwinnable’ cases with a client list including road rage killer Kenneth Noye and timeshare fraudster John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer (pictured, he claimed to have represented Saddam Hussein and Ian Brady)
After attempting to steal thousands of pounds using cheques drawn by fictitious banks, he was arrested and sentenced to five-years in jail for fraud.
The appeal of his client was denied by Lord Justice Stephen Brown in January 1987. This concluded that the case had revealed a’very deep and large measure fraud.
After his release, he moved to California and then the Balkans, where he befriended Slobodan Milošević, then president of Serbia and Zeljko Ražnatović.
He met his second wife Mirjana, with whom he fathered another son, Gianni before returning to England in 1999.
Di Stefano was an Italian-British citizen who spoke English with a cockney accent. He is known as the Devil’s Advocate, because of his efforts to defend some of the worst villains on the planet.
He conned millions of dollars from clients by pretending to be a lawyer, despite not having any legal qualifications.
To give his clients, the judiciary and business card holders the impression that he was an attorney, he used the Italian word “avvocato” on letterheads and ID documents.
Gerome Lynch QC was a QC who had worked alongside the conman on about 10 cases during the 2000s. He said that there were rumors that he wasn’t qualified.
He insisted, however that he was “as good as you can get” when it came to legal advice.
In 1999 he tried to buy Dundee Football Club, but the deal collapsed amid a protest from the fans when they discovered his links to Arkan.
He tried again two years later to get a seat at the Norwich City board, but Delia Smith, majority shareholder of Delia Smith rejected his offer.
Some cases were won by him, including a manslaughter case against Nicholas van Hoogstraten that was overturned in 2002. He also got him out of prison.
His appearance was in Notorious 2003 BBC documentary, which claimed that Hitler would not have been convicted in the case of murdering Jews.
Meanwhile he spoke of his friendship with Saddam Hussein, saying: ‘I had about three meetings with Saddam and found him to be a very amenable person.
‘He spoke reasonable English, liked a drink… and talked about his children. He was normal and average.
‘I took it as a compliment when I learnt from his wife that he wanted me on his defence team.’
In 2003, Di Stefano secured the release of John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer from prison on a technicality, with only a fine of £33million for timeshare fraud, which Palmer later avoided paying.
His name was among several that were associated with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq.
Di Stefano claims to be a representative of dozens public hate figures.
This list also includes John ‘Goldfinger’ Palma (convicted of time-share fraud), Ronnie Biggs (Great Train robber), mass murderers Jeremy Bamber, Dr Shipman and Charles Bronson (dubbed Britain’s most violent prisoner).
Di Stefano was close friends with Serbian warlord Željko Ražnatović, aka Arkan, before his assassination.
He was once asked to explain why he supported such unsavoury characters. If she is with the seven perverts, then she will be in need of our help.
Some clients complained that he had charged them hundreds of thousands of pounds to do work that never happened.
Police arrested him in 2011 in Majorca over multiple fraud allegations.
On the return flight to Britain, he informed officers that he had been a MI6 agent for a while. This made him ineligible to be prosecuted.
Meanwhile he also claimed his father had been murdered in 2006 by British security services, in part as revenge for having filed legal papers against Tony Blair on behalf of Tariq Aziz, Saddam’s foreign minister.
In March 2013, di Stefano, pleaded guilty to another two counts of fraud and a further three counts were ordered to lie on file at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
He tried to purchase Dundee Football Club in 1999, but it was rebuffed by the fans after they learned of his connections to Arkan.
As After hearing the sentence, he got out of court.Di Stefano shouted loudly to the judge: “I’m obliged, my Lord.”
The trial heard di Stefano speak out of his links with Robert Mugabe, Osama be Laden, Saddam Hussein, and his “friendship” with Slobodan Milolosevic.
In 2004, he called Saddam a ‘nice man’, and boasted about being asked to defend Killers like Kenneth Noye (Jeremy Bamber), Harold Shipman (Harold Shipman), Linda Calvey (Linda Calvey).
The Recorder of Westminster Judge Alistair McCreath noted that there had been many offenses over long periods.
According to him, the fact that victims (including a man with a disability seeking compensation for his arm loss) were all “desperate” and vulnerable and suffered losses not only financial, but also the ‘raising of false hopes’, was aggravating.
Pop guru Jonathan King, who was convicted of a series of sexual assaults on teenage boys, with his lawyer di Stefano
Di Stefano was told by the judge: “I recognize that you didn’t actively seek out people whom you defrauded.” They found you. They did not come to you, but they are more than one type of predator.
“Some predators are out hunting their victims while others wait in the wings for them.
“Your victims in the case were all vulnerable people because they were desperate.”
Judge also pointed out that while the case was about money, it’s also about something else and greater – about the distress caused by your actions to so many people.
He said, “You didn’t care about them or their pain.” “Your concern was only to make your money.”
David Aaronberg QC, prosecutor of the case against di Stefano told the jury that di Stefano is well-known because he handled cases which others thought too complex or impossible to win.
Judge Di Stefano stated that the harm done by di Stefano was “in financial terms only high.”
Di Stefano acted as Patrick ‘Dutchy,’ a career Irish criminal most well-known for his first accusation of murdering Veronica Guerin, an investigative journalist from Ireland. He denied this until his passing.
He also added“In terms of emotional damage, it was even greater. The building of false hope, which were always and inevitably crushed, then years of misery, frustration, and trying to get back what you stole, and finally having to face their financial losses.
Di Stefano told the judge that he had “lied” to his victims about who and what he could do.
He committed ‘planned, persistent’ crimes and his court appearances were marred by ‘breathtaking optimism’.
Di Stefano of North Stream Marshside, Canterbury in Kent was found guilty on nine counts.
He also pleaded guilty to stealing £150,000 compensation that should have gone to a man who had lost an arm in a car crash.
Di Stefano had, according to the judge, lied about his capabilities and identity to his victims.
He was sentenced to 22-years in prison for bogus legal advice. However, he is eligible for release the following year.
It was part of an insurance policy. Di Stefano paid the money into his company account, and then “duly stole” it.
It was described as a “wicked” crime by the court and one that “stands out in its own league.”
The bogus lawyer also admitted defrauding engineer David Brown and his family of £160,000 including the £75,000 life savings of his partner’s mother. This case also involved £20,000 costs which were not paid out.
Because di Stefano had given him the “utterly wrong” advice of ‘to defend your own position,’ he was forced to lose his house and his job.
Although he was sentenced for 22 years, he is eligible to be released next year.
Devil’s Advocate: The Mostly True Story of Giovanni di Stefano will be available to watch on Sky Documentaries on 15 February at 9pm