TRAUMATISED

TOT GROWS INTO LEWD SWINDLER

- BY TOM PETTIFOR Crime Editor

BEREAVED Aristos' brother Achilleas in office they shared with news cuttings

Anthony Constantinou was three when his glamorous mother ran from their home in a cocktail dress and flagged down a passing motorcyclist.

"Someone has shot my husband. Please help me," sobbed Elena Constantinou. The stranger rushed into the 10-bedroom London mansion and found Anthony's father, Aristos, lying dead in his private chapel.

The rags-to-riches fashion tycoon had taken four bullets to the body and one in each temple.

Forty years on, the case remains unsolved.

And of course the crime, on New Year's Day in 1985, had consequences far beyond one man's death.

Perhaps psychologically and emotionally traumatised by his father's violent death, Anthony, now 42, has become one of Britain's most wanted men.

Police are using new powers as the net closes in on the crook, described as Britain's Wolf of Wall Street due to his swindling and sexual assaults so like those seen in the 2013 film.

He vanished two years ago while on trial over a Ponzi-style scam but Interpol has issued a silver notice against him, one of the first obtained for a UK suspect. It allows detectives to trace and seize his overseas assets, such as cars and properties.

Convicted in his absence of a string of fraud offences at Southwark crown court in June 2023, Constantinou fled the UK before he was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment. He has been ordered to pay back £64million or face even more jail time.