Detectives dubbed him “the King of the Castle” after he used forged death certificates to evade capture while living the high life in a Burgundy chateau surrounded by works of Salvador Dali and a vintage Rolls Royce Phantom.

Yesterday, Europol announced it had caught a “high-profile” Ukrainian fugitive on October 5 who had been enjoying a “lavish lifestyle in France” and is “thought to be behind a complex case of international fraud and money laundering”.

Three other men were arrested in the swoop - two Ukrainians and a Moldavian. Two Ukrainian women have been placed under investigation.

Gendarmes also seized €4.6 million (£4m) of jewels and property, including a medieval castle identified by the Telegraph as Chateau de la Rochepot in the wine growing Côte d’Or - which until recently belonged to heirs of former French president Sadi Carnot.

In the haul were three unnamed Dali works.

Locals said the vintage Rolls was seen towed from the castle in recent days.

While not named by the European Union’s law enforcement agency, one Ukraine-based reporter in Radio Free Europe said the suspect was Dmytro Malinovskiy, an Odessa-based businessman who has been wanted by police in Ukraine since 2015 in connection with a major fraud and forgery case involving defense ministry property in the Black Sea port city.