Following a Thames Valley Police investigation, a man has been jailed for romance and VAT fraud offences in Maidenhead.

Maurizio Fermi, aged 67, from Marches, Italy, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison at Aylesbury Crown Court on Friday 6 February.

A unanimous jury found Fermi guilty of two counts of fraud by false representation, following a five-day trial.

Maurizio Fermi’s romance fraud offences took place between 6 May 2012 and 30 November 2017.

He first met the victim, a woman now in her sixties, on a dating site and then later in-person.

Fermi made this new relationship feel promising for the victim, allowing them to share many details about their lives and therefore developing a close relationship.

The intimacy in the relationship did not progress as expected, due to the fact Fermi explained that he was under a Catholic vow from The Vatican, which meant that he had to live a life of chastity, poverty, and servitude for seven years to atone for his previously sinful behaviour and lifestyle.

Fermi made a promise to the victim that they could have a future together, including marriage, after the vow was complete in four to five years’ time.

The victim had a very strong faith and came to accept and respect Fermi’s vow, and together they made plans for their future, which included purchasing a property for them to live in together.

The victim gave emotional and financial support to Fermi over the years by finding him employment, providing six different loans to him after signing a loan agreement totalling £174, 500 for his business, and to purchase properties as investments for their future. Fermi complied with it for a few years, and paid back around £500-£1,000 each month.

However, Fermi’s vow was a complete lie, as were all the promises and the reasons given for obtaining loans from the victim.

When his vow was due to end, Fermi fled to Italy with another woman, and ceased all repayments of the loans he had received from the victim over six years; causing the victim to lose over £142,000.

The VAT fraud offences occurred between 16 April 2014 and 30 September 2017.

Fermi was employed as a contractor and issued invoices under his own company’s name, Twenty Twenty Financial Systems Consultancy.

On those invoices, he provided a false VAT registration number and invoiced VAT inclusive amounts. However, he had never registered his company for VAT, and his company had in fact been dissolved for two of the three years that he invoiced under it.

Over three years, Fermi pocketed almost £70,000 of VAT that should’ve been passed on to HRMC.

His employer could not then reclaim the VAT they had paid via his invoices because he was not VAT registered, and never passed the VAT over to HMRC as required.

Fermi was arrested in Italy on 2 July 2025.

Charges were authorised by Crown Prosecution Service on 24 April 2024, however due to him being in Italy he was not formally charged until he was extradited to the UK on 7 August 2025.

Detective Constable, Catriona Shaw, of the Berkshire East CID, said: “I want to thank the victim for her courage in giving evidence during the trial and praise her perseverance and patience in seeing this case through to trial and ultimately the conviction of Maurizio Fermi.

“The victim has been through an extremely challenging period in her life with long lasting consequences as a result of Fermi’s dishonest actions, therefore I am pleased that the jury saw his lies for what they were, and that he has received an appropriate custodial sentence.

“Fermi had complete disregard for making an honest living and this was further shown in his lack of any effort to pay taxes in this country.

“I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that anyone can be the victim of fraud, please do not be embarrassed and do report it to Report Fraud.”