Costas Christoforou is being hunted by police
A manhunt is underway for a suspected conman who is targeting independent businesses and fooling workers into handing over cash.
Costas Christoforou, who only has two top teeth, poses as tradesmen including a mechanic, delivery driver and technician as he preys on independent businesses.
The 60-year-old fools staff into giving him hundreds of pounds after telling them he has done work for the owners, according to police.
Christoforou is understood to have targeted some 20 businesses including restaurants, pubs, an estate agent, a west end clothes shop, a florist and a cinema.
In each case he is believed to have entered the premises and spoken to staff purporting to have carried out work for the owner or said he requires payment for goods he has delivered.
The Metropolitan Police said he then purports to speak to the owner on the phone and asks for cash which is handed over before workers realise they have been the victim of an elaborate fraud.
Officers have now launched a hunt for the suspected conman who has links to Hackney, Haringey, Enfield and Islington.
Christoforou, who only has two top teeth, poses as tradesmen including a mechanic, delivery driver and technician as he preys on independent businesses
CCTV footage released by police shows the brazen 60-year-old stroll into a restaurant in Hoxton and approach a female waitress, telling her that he had a delivery of shelves.
The footage, recorded in February, then shows Christoforou re-enter the business pretending to be on the phone to the owner of the shop.
He scribbles ‘costs’ on a notepad and uses the owner’s name, fooling the waitress into handing over £225 straight from the till.
Christoforou said he would return with his delivery but made off with the cash, before the waitress alerted police.
CCTV footage released by police shows the brazen 60-year-old stroll into a restaurant in Hoxton and approach a female waitress
The footage shows Christoforou scribbling ‘costs’ on a notepad, fooling the waitress into handing over £225 straight from the till
Detective Inspector Paul Ridley from Hackney CID said: ‘He is the archetypal con artist, using a proven method to defraud with several guises and exuding confidence even laughing with his unsuspecting victims.
‘The suspect almost always targets small independent businesses and clearly researches the senior employees, on several occasions being able to name the managers, and brazenly pretending to be talking to them on the phone, providing a degree of legitimacy to his account.’
Victims described Christoforou as white, 5ft 10in of slim build, with short grey hair that has a bald patch on top. During his most recent offence he had a pencil moustache.