​A conman who claimed to be the illegitimate son of financier Edmund de Rothschild was found guilty today of duping a single mother out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Unemployed Alexander Marc de Rothschild-Hatton claimed to be an Oxford-educated international financier as part of his ruse to bleed more than £300,000 from divorcee Christine Handy.

The 49-year-old, of Bowling Green Road, Cirencester, was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court of seven counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

The jury could not reach verdicts for three charges of obtaining property by deception and were 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 today by Judge Julian Lambert after verdicts were delivered on the deception charges.

Judge Lambert will sentence De Rothschild-Hatton for all offences at Bristol Crown Court tomorrow at 10.30am.

For more on this story, see tomorrow's Echo.