Guzman-Betancourt had 10 different aliases

Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt, 29, stole jewellery worth �150,000, cash and other goods over six years.

At an earlier hearing he pleaded guilty to burgling the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge in May 2001 and the Dorchester, Park Lane, last year.

The Colombian national was jailed at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

Guzman-Betancourt, an expert linguist, had at least 10 different aliases which he used to trick his way into guests' rooms.

Besides modelling himself on Raffles, Guzman-Betancourt also copied Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Catch Me If You Can.

This was a series of very serious burglaries, carried out in a very sophisticated fashion and in a very underhand way Judge Rodney McKinnon Modern-day 'Raffles' evaded law

DiCaprio played Frank Abagnale Junior, a successful con artist who managed to pass himself off as several identities and elude the FBI for years.

Guzman-Betancourt also hijacked the identity of an Arab billionaire.

Judge Rodney McKinnon told him: "This was a series of very serious burglaries, carried out in a very sophisticated fashion and in a very underhand way by pretending to be guests in expensive hotels, and thereafter gaining access to rooms and gaining goods of substantial value.

"Persons going into hotels... are entitled to expect privacy and safety. There can be nothing worse than for visitors to this capital to go to hotels and be preyed upon in this way.

Real anxiety

"It is a real anxiety for visitors that this sort of thing might happen."

Guzman-Betancourt was caught when an off-duty officer saw him at a London supermarket.

He asked for 14 other offences - including six burglaries, six deceptions, and two of possessing forged Russian and Spanish passports - to be taken into consideration.

The authorities are also investigating Guzman-Betancourt's activities in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Canada, Thailand and Japan.