RELAXING: Abdelkarim Serhani, inset, and at a resort in Indonesia after fleeing AustraliaA FRENCHMAN who posed as a member of a Saudi Arabian royal family and left Australia as a fugitive has written a tell-all book on how he scammed $42,000 from Hamilton Island.
Self-confessed impostor Abdelkarim Serhani, 28, writes in his yet-to-be released L'imposteur how he staked out the Whitsundays for two days before talking his way into free accommodation, meals, drinks - including $20,000 worth of champagne - and helicopter flights at Hamilton Island in May, 2009.
He says the risk of becoming a false Arab prince was "huge, even reckless" but admits he has no regrets and hopes his story does not encourage "copycats".
Mr Serhani spent 16 days on Hamilton Island living a life of luxury filled with booze, women and resort activities after he found a flyer advertising the Whitsundays' white sandy beaches, coconut trees and coral reef while he was at Hyde Park in Sydney, holed up in a backpacker hostel.
"Without hesitation I spend the rest of my savings to buy the plane ticket that will take me right to an extraordinary adventure," he writes in a French to English translation. "I took a water taxi from the port to which Airlie Beach leads on Hamilton Island, a paradise on Earth, the perfect island, which has a payment system that allows you to eat in restaurants, do all the activities of the island by paying at the end of your stay, and on top of that the hotel do not ask for ID, the dream.
"Good deception is 80 per cent preparation and 20 per cent performance."
His explanations seem to be something plucked out of a James Bond movie in which it took him two days to "study all the solutions" in case he was exposed, such as water taxi times to the locations of the heliport and police station as well as "places to hide".
When Mr Serhani's exploits were discovered by staff, police charged him with fraud and his passport was confiscated by local police but he skipped Proserpine court after claiming he had "broken legs" which he admits "bought him time" to make his way to Darwin and escape by yacht to Bali.
The Frenchman is notorious in his country for his infamous antics since 2007 and allegedly continued that lifestyle when he arrived in North Queensland.
He taunted Queensland police with his "catch me if you can" phrase and sent photos from various locations showing himself drinking champagne, partying, in sports cars, helicopters, on jet-skis and boats, relaxing at hotels and resorts and teaching students in a classroom.
In an interview via Skype with the Townsville Bulletin, he said he made up the fake Arab prince disguise because he was "tired of discrimination".
"In France and in Belgium, to get in to a party if you are Arabic and don't have money, you are not welcomed. So I played with that," he said.
The French version of the book will be released in Europe in December and the English translation may be up for grabs by February.
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