Meet the man who conned the world

In 1981, Peter Rigby was running a video studio in Muswell Hill, north London. One day, he was called to the penthouse of London’s Montcalm Hotel to visit a new client. The Montcalm had been converted from a series of Georgian houses. Inside, it was the height of ’80s elegance: black leather sofas, duplex suites, and a wood-panelled club bar in the basement.

At the hotel, Rigby took in the client, in the flesh. John Ackah Blay-Miezah was bare-chested, with a large gold Star of David hanging from a gold chain around his neck. He sat on one of the three sofas in the lounge of his suite, smoking an expensive cigar.