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The trial of the former landlord of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), whose actions led to a £700,000 deficit for the trade association in 2009, has begun.

Achilleas Kallakis used forged documents to create the illusion that he was wealthy in order to defraud Allied Irish Banks and Lloyds Banking Group of £750 million.

Kallakis, 43, and his business partner Alexander Williams, 43, are charged with 21 counts of conspiracy to defraud relating to a series of alleged deceptions in order to buy 16 properties, including the former headquarters of the CIPR at 32 St James's Square.

Both men have pleaded not guilty. Williams was described by the prosecution as a 'versatile and prolific forger' who created loan guarantee documents, false accounts and letters purporting to come from Credit Suisse.

The duo even forged the death certificate of Kallakis's mother so that her name at death matched his.

More than £500,000 of the CIPR's 2009 deficit related to the association's move from its St James's Square to its current premises at Bloomsbury Square. The institute has since returned to the black.

After Kallakis sold a penthouse on St James's Square for a reported world record £115 million in March 2008, he applied for planning permission to turn the CIPR's Georgian headquarters into a private home.

It is believed he then offered the CIPR a financial incentive to leave before its lease expired. In the event, the commitments were not honoured. The property was repossessed and sold.

From his rented apartment at Carlos Place in Mayfair and an address in Monaco, Kallakis built up a 1.6 million square foot property portfolio - marginally bigger than White City!

The Sunday Times even placed him at number 325 on its 2008 Rich List, valuing him at £250 million, adding: 'We cannot see any great asset wealth in the Kallakis companies in Britain.'

The high stakes poker player, who is known as 'The Don' in gambling circles and once won $1 million in a single game, even looked into acquiring the Honda Formula One racing team when it was put up for sale.

But behind the wealthy façade - his wife Pamela and four children lived in a £4 million townhouse on Brompton Square in Knightsbridge - all was not what it seemed.

Indeed, while a paid-for listing on Who's Who in America implies Kallakis is a wealthy international businessman and ambassador of the Republic of San Marino to the Sultan of Brunei - allowing him to use the honorary title 'His Excellency' - he is actually Stefan Michalis Kollakis, who 14 years ago was convicted of conspiracy to commit forgery alongside business partner Williams.

Both men have since changed their names. Kollakis became Kallakis while Williams was formerly known as Lewis.

The conviction followed an investigation by Cambridgeshire police into claims that he was selling fake Hong Kong passports for $50,000 each.

When the police raided the home of Kollakis, who then worked in a Croydon travel agency, they found hundreds of forged documents and learned that he was selling false 'lordships' to Americans, Australians and Arabs for £85,000 apiece.

The Guardian reported that Kollakis bought the titles from the Manorial Society of Great Britain, subdivided them into districts and offered them for sale in newspaper adverts. He claimed that the process of splitting and increasing the number of titles, known as subinfudation, was legal, even though it was banned in 1290.

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