I first heard of Elliot Castro in the Spring of 2005 when I read a short article in The Scotsman newspaper about his conviction. It was a strange story, with mentions of Rolex watches and famous hotels, but nothing on how and why such a young Glaswegian became one of the most wanted fraudsters in Britain and beyond.

I wrote to Elliot in Wormwood Scrubs and, after he was moved to Open Prisons in the south of England, visited him on several occasions. On Saturday afternoons we'd find the nearest country pub to Elliot's HMP residence for him to talk me through his unlikely life. I also visited the Heathrow police detective who had single-handedly tracked Elliot down and began my own tracing of Elliot's movements which would lead to meeting lawyers, police and fraud investigators around the world.

The result of all this would be Other People's Money.