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A con artist jailed for a £50,000 gay sex blackmail plot against a member of the Royal Family has died.

Socialite Ian Strachan , who went by the name Charles Goldstein, was given five years in 2008 for demanding a five-figure sum from a junior royal he claimed had performed a sex act on a male aide at a party.

The 40-year-old and accomplice Sean McGuigan, who was also jailed for five years, filmed the aide as he made lurid allegations of a gay romp with the royal, and launched the blackmail plot after failing to sell the video to newspapers.

Strachan, who was described as a Walter Mitty-style fantasist and called a "twit" by his own lawyer at his trial, was convicted of demanding money with menaces and released after serving 30 months.

(Image: PA) (Image: Rex Features)

He bragged about being a friend of royals and appeared to be living a playboy lifestyle, but in truth he was a university dropout who lived with his mother.

Strachan was found dead on Christmas Eve, and tests have failed to reveal what killed him, the Sun reported.

His death remains under investigation.

(Image: Rex Features)

A friend claimed he had two heart attacks last summer, adding: "He lived a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle and did not exactly look after himself. We do not think he took his own life.”

Strachan was trapped in Dubai for around ten months after his passport was seized in a row over an unpaid luxury car bill.

(Image: PA)

In an interview with the Daily Record at the time he said he was accused of crashing a rented Audi R8 sports car and banned from leaving the emirate until he could pay £100,000 to the car firm.

He claimed he owed less than £1,000 but was being held hostage until he could pay for the car's repairs.

Strachan, born in Aberdeen as Paul Adalsteinsson, said: "I never thought I would be here for months. I feel like I am in this horrible black hole.

(Image: Rex Features)

"Everything I had, Dubai has taken from me. I have lost everything."

Strachan had the lower part of his left leg amputated after he fell from the second-floor balcony at his mother's home in 2013.

He passed himself off as a lawyer and property developer over the years, and even claimed to his solicitors in the blackmail case that he had socialised with Royal Family members and had met Princes William and Harry.

Neither royal was involved in the court case .

Strachan wore designer suits and appeared to be living a Champagne lifestyle, and claimed to pals that he had inherited a massive sum from his grandmother.