A jet-set academic who founded a “utopian” education school has been arrested on suspicion of major fraud.

University of Sussex PhD student Erich Kofmel, 34, has been released on police bail while investigations continue over allegations he has been behind a holiday sales scam that has made him thousands of pounds.

Mr Kofmel, who travels the world giving lectures, is alleged to have taken deposit payments for vacations into false bank accounts before cancelling the trips and pocketing the money.

Mr Kofmel has denied all allegations and said he himself had been a victim of identity fraud.

He is based in Paris on a secondment at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques but was arrested in London in May ahead of a scheduled appearance to lecture at the London School of Economics.

It is understood he has since been suspended by the University of Sussex.

A university spokeswoman said it was not able to comment on individual cases but had a policy of taking disciplinary action against anyone bringing the institution into disrepute.

In August 2006, Mr Kofmel announced the opening of the Sussex Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS) in a house in Tenant Lain on the university’s campus in Falmer, Brighton.

He said he wanted it to attract private funding to support research motivated by academics’ creative interests and to buck the trend for universities to work in narrow fields designated by economic need. The university never recognised the SCIS and has asked it to make clear it was not officially affiliated.

Before the centre was founded Mr Kofmel’s reputation had already been called into question by articles in the national press linking him to an alleged fraud.

It was claimed he charged prospective tenants of a London flat hundreds of pounds for reference checks before rejecting them and keeping the money. He claimed he had made clear in contracts reference-checking fees of £75 an hour would be charged and the cash had been kept because the tenants were unsuitable.

Although the new allegations against Mr Kofmel are unrelated to the SCIS, a number of academics previously linked to the centre have distanced themselves from it.

They include the co-founder Alex Higgins. Many of the academics said they had been connected with the centre against their will after only brief communication with Mr Kofmel.

Professor Stephen Clark, from the University of Liverpool, has banned him from putting out research requests on the philosophy web forum Philos-L, which he runs.

Prof Clark said: “SCIS is Mr Kofmel under another name. He is riding on the names and reputations of others who do not want to be used in this way. He needs to find people who can testify to his good faith.”