A fraudster scammed his in-laws out of £1.8million with a fake business deal he claimed to have forged with the football club Paris Saint-Germain.

Edward Blackmore, 45, dishonestly claimed his company, OGC Sport Investments, had agreed a multimillion-pound services contract with the French team in August 2018, Wiltshire Police said.

He then used the fabricated contract as assurance of income to secure loans from his in-laws and a finance company, scamming both out of £3.4million in total.

Blackmore, of Holt, Wiltshire, forged the stamp and signature of a lawyer to make the contract believable, the force said.

His family described him in victim statements as a “grandiose narcissist” who had carried out “a calculated betrayal”.