His web site is a who's who of the evil and notorious.

Harold Shipman, Saddam Hussein, Kenneth Noye and Slobodan Milosevic are all listed as clients.

There is an essay about why Osama Bin Laden could hide out in Italy and a detailed section on Serbian warlord Arkan, dubbed the Butcher of Belgrade.

Giovanni Di Stefano prefers to think of Arkan as "a lovely man" and owns chairs given to him by Saddam.

Mr di Stefano is an Italian "avvocato" and a very wealthy individual.

He says he is paying tax on a fortune of £450 million. He has lavish homes in London and Italy and has been looking after the Tenerife property empire of his client timeshare fraudster John "Goldfinger" Palmer.

But it is his success in overturning Sussex property tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten's manslaughter conviction that has sent shivers through the legal establishment.

Mr Hoogstraten was due to face a retrial for the manslaughter of landlord Mohammed Sabir Raja on Monday.

From the moment his appeal was lodged, Mr Di Stefano was a regular fixture in court in a capacity as adviser.

That Mr Hoogstraten is a free man, exonerated of any connection with the brutal killing, is thanks in no small part to the avvocato.

Mr Di Stefano is a short, balding man, who dresses in smart suits and dark glasses.

For a lawyer he is friendly and approachable. He speaks with a Cockney accent, which in itself sets him apart from the upper-middle class voices prevalent in the Royal Courts of Justice.

But there is an underlying fiery Latin passion that can manifest itself outside the courtroom if things have not gone his client's way.

Mr Di Stefano became involved in the Hoogstraten case after the tycoon was convicted for manslaughter at the Old Bailey and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

He had been cleared of the initial charge of murder but found guilty of arranging for two henchmen to visit Mr Raja in 1999.

Mr Raja was shot and stabbed to death with his last words echoing out: "These are Hoogstraten's men. They have hit me. They have hit me."

Mr Hoogstraten always protested his innocence and turned to Mr Di Stefano. The Italian was clearly only too pleased to become involved.

Mr Di Stefano said: "Honestly, when he Hoogstraten was active in London in the Sixties and Seventies he was an idol of mine. The debonair character, the boy who made it from nowhere to something.

"He drove the right car, he had the right length of hair, the right property. I admired him, never thinking that one day I could go close to saying that I would help him."

The lawyer managed to prove the trial judge misdirected the jury about what would constitute manslaughter and the conviction was overturned.

But Mr Hoogstraten stayed in Belmarsh Prison as he was re-indicted for manslaughter.

A fresh trial was ordered but thanks to Mr Di Stefano's uncanny knack for unearthing loopholes in the legal system, that will not take place.

Mr Hoogstraten's barrister, Geoffrey Cox, QC, argued that the case had to be thrown out.

He said as the law stood, even if the prosecution proved its case it would still not amount to a proper conviction for manslaughter. He could not therefore be charged with it.

Judge Sir Stephen Mitchell agreed and Mr Hoogstraten was freed.

The story does not end there, however. Mr Di Stefano and Mr Hoogstraten are now trying to buy a warship together.

The former HMS Vengeance, which was sold to the Brazilian navy, has recently been decommissioned.

Conservationists want the aircraft carrier permanently docked in Plymouth or Southampton and converted into a museum. Mr Di Stefano and Mr Hoogstraten have had the more radical idea of making it an offshore holding centre for asylum-seekers. The result of their bid is still pending.

Meanwhile, Mr Di Stefano is being asked by legal authorities to prove he is entitled to practise in this country.

A spokesman for The Law Society told The Argus: "He is not a solicitor. He is not a registered foreign lawyer. He is not registered with the Law Society and neither is he regulated by the Law Society. We have no evidence that Giovanni Di Stefano is entitled to practise in England or Wales."

Mr Di Stefano's high profile has been maintained through his brief stint as a director of Dundee Football Club.

After pumping money into the ailing Scottish Premier League team last year, he managed to entice international players of the calibre of Craig Burley and Fabrizio Ravanelli. Just a few months later, however, he fell out with other board members and resigned. The club is now on the brink, owing almost £13 million.

During this period, Mr Di Stefano was followed by a BBC camera crew. The programme Devil's Advocate was broadcast last month and gave an insight into his life.

Mr Di Stefano revealed he was part of a group of businessmen who bought the MGM empire in the Nineties and this was how he had made the bulk of his fortune. He said: "I have been very, very lucky.

"Three Italians basically purchased MGM in 1990. When we closed the deal in New York, many people thought the money came from organised crime. It wasn't. We just borrowed it.

"The bank were not fully aware we were going to borrow it but borrow it we did. It was very sweet."

Mr Di Stefano said the other Italians were charged with money laundering, fraud and tax evasion but he made a $200 million profit from the deal. However, he was deported as an "undesirable alien" and moved to the wartorn former Yugoslavia.

Mr Di Stefano said: "Where's the best place to lie low for a while? I thought a war zone. Who's going to look for you there?"

He soon became a member of the inner circle of General Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan.

Mr Di Stefano said of the warlord: "He was a lovely man. He was such a great man."

Mr Di Stefano is now a partner with Studio Legale Internazionale, a Rome-based law firm with offices in the UK.

When asked if Mafia families had called on his services, Mr Di Stefano replied: "That goes without saying. By the nature of my profession I know them. I have no business with them other than my representation.

"The fact I mix with criminals does not make me one. I'm their lawyer."

Asked by the BBC programme whether he would accept Adolf Hitler's case, he replied: "I wouldn't need to think about that.

"Working within the law, he would not only be acquitted, you would not be able to sustain a charge. Let's have a trial in the proper standards of law. Let's find out. They are scared.

"I would take his case and Satan's too."

They're names that would grace his web site of the infamous.