Deceit: The 68-year-old from Nice posed as a 37-year-old male model on an online dating site

A fat balding French man managed to convince unsuspecting women that he was a male model and a prince who wanted to meet them in a darkened room in his flat for sex.

The man posted a profile of a 37-year-old male model on several dating sites, including a fake photograph to lure in the women.

Several women responded to the man's advertisement, with two complaining that they only agreed to sex believing that the man they were meeting was completely different.

Two of the man's alleged victims spoke to Le Parisien, and revealed how the man managed to entice them into his flat.

The man described himself as Anthony Laroche on the Zoosk dating site and said they should have a completely blind date.

He exchanged a series of explicit text messages with both women before agreeing to meet up.

One of the women, known only as Sylvie told police that she was convinced she was meeting a 'good-looking man with brown hair and blue eyes'.

She said: 'He explained he wanted to play a game like in 50 Shades of Grey to make things more exciting.'

The man told the 40-year-old woman to put on a blindfold before joining him in bed.

After their initial encounter, the woman turned on the lights, and instead of a 37-year-old male model, she was confronted with 'a man of around 65, with glasses, balding and all wrinkly. He didn't correspond at all to the photo. I felt total disgust'.

The man's second victim, Leila told Le Parisien that after they finished their encounter, she wanted to see her new friend for the first time.

She said: 'he didn't want me to take off the blindfold. When I insisted, he got angry. I ended up seeing his silhouette in the dark. He was old, pot-bellied with a big nose. I told him: "It wasn't you in the photo." He said: "No, but I had grown fond of you and was afraid to admit it." I left in disgust.'

Lies: The 68-year-old used this photograph from a 2009 advertisement campaign for PME Legend

The man convinced his victims to don a blindfold before asking them to join him in his bed

Police arrested the 68-year-old man who has been named only as Michel. An investigating magistrate has placed him on formal investigation for 'rape by surprise'.

The man told police: 'For me, when she entered the bedroom naked, she was consenting. At that moment, she couldn't care less what I looked like.

'If she had asked just once if I was really the man in the photo, I would have told her the truth," he is cited as saying. Some women have a crazy side to them and like men who surprise them.'

The man's lawyer Laurent Poumarede said: 'Rape implies the absence of consent. Here the women were at no time forced. As for the photos of the model, they were too good to be true. I wonder if these women didn't knowingly close their eyes to the truth in more ways than one.'