A Russian fraudster has been jailed after one of his victims spotted him on a reality TV show.
Alexei Adeev, 26, was jailed for four and a half years after a woman he had cheated out of almost $2,000 in a property scam spotted him on TV. The victim was surprised to see him on the Russian reality show 'House-2: Build Your Love' and immediately contacted the authorities.
The woman said Adeev, who in the past has served a jail sentence for car theft and bribing an official, had fled with the money after she gave it to him as a deposit for a house in Smolensk.
The conman's jail sentence comes just months after Russian MPs called for the reality show to be banned and its hosts put on trial for organised prostitution and pimping.
They said the show, which aims to pair off contestants by the end of the series, was doing serious damage to the morals of Russia's youth by encouraging participants to have sex.
