Fake Prince Harry cons Austrian floor fitter

As it turned out, Prince Harry did not need renovation works at Buckingham Palace

A Facebook user posing as Britain's Prince Harry has conned an Austrian floor fitter out of thousands of euros.

The fake prince offered the workman a million-euro contract to renovate the parquet floors at Buckingham Palace.

The tradesman then transferred 27,500 euros (£23,000) to several UK bank accounts, which the fraudster said was necessary to set up a British business.

The Austrian contacted police after not hearing back from the "prince". Investigations are ongoing.

But authorities in the province of Burgenland have told the floor-fitter that his chances of getting his money back are "slim", the Austrian Kurier newspaper reports.

The victim had initially transferred 2,500 euros to a Lloyd bank account, before sending another 22,000 euros for an alleged security deposit and a third sum of 3,000.

On Friday, the floor-fitter eventually went to see police after not hearing back from the fake prince for more than two weeks.