Italian police suspected that they had found Roberto Vivaldi, 69, in Venezuela but were unable to confirm his identity until they discovered he was selling old records online.

Officers created a fake identity to order a record from him – a 1960s recording of The Girl from Ipanema – and dusted it for prints once it arrived, The Times reports.

Having confirmed his identity, they worked with Venezuelan police to have him arrested and extradited to Italy to serve out the rest of his prison sentence.

Mr Vivaldi fled Italy in 1997 after being sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for financial crimes including fraudulent bankruptcy and money laundering.