IN real life, he is a baker from Austria named Gerhard Bacher, whose blond hair and fresh face make him look even younger than his 22 years.
But his brief spell as Crown Prince Gerald-Dennis Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, 'ambassador at large' for the mysterious Dominion of Melchizedek, means he is now serving a six-month sentence.
Not content with using an assumed name and representing a country which controls not one square foot of territory, Bacher tried to lodge cheques with a face value of more than $500,000 drawn on the Asia Pacific Bank of Melchizedek in some of the territory's biggest banks. He also used his diplomatic passport from Melchizedek to open the accounts under his fictitious name.
Commercial Crime Bureau officers halted his activities before he could get any cash.
After looking through a pile of bizarre documents, magistrate Yung Yiu-wing in Eastern Court told Bacher he dismissed the idea that the scheme was a practical joke.
'A fraud on the banking system in Hong Kong is a very serious business. I'm sure if you were not stopped your involvement would have got more and more and you would have got into very serious trouble,' Mr Yung said.
