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It's a story which sounds as if it comes out of the pages of a Hollywood script: A desperate businessman decides to fake his own kidnapping for financial gain, but ends up actually being sold to real jihadists in Syria.

Alessandro Sandrini was held by an extremist group for nearly three years - at one point being filmed on his knees in an orange jumpsuit with masked men pointing guns at him - before he was finally freed in May 2019. At the time, some speculated that the Italian government may have paid a ransom for his release.

But this week, he was charged with simulating a crime and committing fraud after investigators raised doubts about his account of his supposed kidnapping.

Nick Squires covered the story for the Daily Telegraph and described how Sandrini was first approached by a criminal gang:

"They said to him, "Don't worry, you'll be put up in a luxury villa. We'll provide you with alcohol and drugs and women, and there'll soon be ransom payment forthcoming from the Italian government. We'll all pocket the profits and go home the richer". It didn't turn out that way."

(Photo: Alessandro Sandrini (R), a 32-year-old Italian national who vanished in October 2016 after travelling to Turkey for a holiday Credit: Getty Images)

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