Property fraudster who evaded police for years by hiding in Dubai and Bali with bikini-clad women fell to his death from window of his Chelsea home, inquest told

A notorious fraudster wanted by police plunged to his death from a second-storey window, an inquest heard.

Karl Cronin, 59, was found lying semi-naked on the pavement beneath the window of his home on King's Road, Chelsea in the early hours of April 6 this year.

The discovery of his body caught Metropolitan Police detectives off-guard: they had spent almost two decades looking for Cronin after linking him to a multi-million-pound property fraud.

An inquest into his death was opened today by Jean Harkin, the assistant Inner West London Coroner, who confirmed Cronin was found dead outside his home in Argyll Mansions.

She told Westminster Coroners' Court: 'The deceased was formally identified as Jonathan Carson, formerly Karl Lacey William Cronin.

'He was a single man and he lived at Flat 19 Argyll Mansions, Kings Road in London.

'He was identified by a police constable by means of his passport and the photograph was compared to the deceased and a true likeness was confirmed by the police constable attending.'

Police are still investigating how Cronin came to be in the street.

Karl Cronin died after falling from his upstairs flat window on King's Road, Chelsea, in April this year

Cronin shamelessly flaunted his playboy lifestyle online - even as Met Police detectives were looking for him

Cronin lived in Argyll Mansions on Chelsea's King's Road (pictured). Police are still unsure how he came to fall from the window

He was alleged to have fraudulently claimed up to £5million through property fraud after approaching banks with a variety of aliases and purporting to be the owner of rented properties.

He then remortgaged them before disappearing with the cash.

The fraud is said to have taken in landlords across Chelsea, Fulham, Kensington and Putney in south-west London - and despite an appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch, Cronin was never traced.

Detective Constable Leon Munday told the programme: 'He's travelled the world living in all the best hotels. He has gambled all over Kensington and Chelsea in casinos. He's a playboy.' 

But as the Daily Mail revealed in the weeks after his death, Cronin was openly exhibiting his playboy lifestyle on social media even as detectives fruitlessly searched for him.

Photographs showed him reclining on beaches and beside swimming pools, often with a possessive arm around a young woman in swimwear.

He was also pictured in expensive cars, and enjoying first-class air travel as he lived in Dubai and later Indonesia. 

Cronin was also implicated in a high-profile 2017 fraud trial which led to a model and her mother being jailed.

Laylah De Cruz, then 31, had urged her mother Dianne Moorcroft, 63, to change her name by deed poll to convince estate agents and solicitors she was the owner of a vacant £3m house in Kensington.

De Cruz had been 'dazzled' by Cronin's money, fast cars and jewellery - and ultimately secured a £1.2million bridging loan that was transferred to Dubai and withdrawn in cash. 

Cronin did not stand trial and jurors were told he was at large. De Cruz was jailed for five years, while Moorcroft was sentenced to three.

Cronin pictured in Dubai with a Rolls-Royce that he appeared to have purchased while living there

Karl Cronin appeared in a 2008 Crimewatch appeal (top left), in which he was described as the number one 'most wanted' that month

Laylah De Cruz was convicted of a property fraud in which Cronin was implicated. She had been his lover in Dubai and a court was told he paid off a six-figure debt on her behalf

Sentencing De Cruz in May 2017, Judge Cheryl Jones said she had 'the money, the expensive cars and jewellery' that Cronin offered her, adding: 'You were likely to have been somewhat dazzled by Mr Cronin. It's how most conmen operate.

'Enamoured or not, whether you liked Mr Cronin or not, you are both intelligent women and you both have the ability to tell right from wrong.'

Remarkably, Cronin was traced by the FBI on unrelated fraud charges, arrested in Budapest before spending a year in a US jail.

He was then returned to the UK sometime late last year - without the Met becoming aware. 

Locals say he was seen 'partying hard' the night before he died and neighbours said he frequently leaned out the window to smoke.

Friends described Cronin as a 'loveable rogue, almost an Arthur Daley figure' to the Chelsea Citizen, which first reported his death.

But another person who knew him said: 'He did a lot of bad things in his life and destroyed many, many lives. He lived through lies and deceit and he had a ruthless streak.'

A full inquest will be held on January 20 next year. Do you have a story? Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.