How does he do it? Serhani geeft zich uit voor de zoon van een Arabische prins – Serhani poses as the son of an Arab prince. He is in fact a former student nurse from Elsene in Brussels (though sometimes a police cadet from France, depending on who he’s talking to).

I translated geeft zich uit voor with “poses as”; I could have written “passes himself off as”. This is an example of how the word zich – oneself often doesn’t appear in English. Here are more: de verkoper voelde zich door de “prins” bedrogen – the salesman felt (himself to be) conned by the “prince”; hij schaamt zich niet voor zijn gedrag – he isn’t ashamed (of himself) of his behaviour.

Let’s leave Abdelkarim to his fate for the moment and try out some more reflexive verbs. Being a carefree type, I can write ik maak me nooit zorgen – I never worry. Having a memory like a sieve, I can confess that ik herinner mij dat niet – I don’t remember that. Being indecisive, I can say that ik heb mij bedacht – I’ve changed my mind. It being a long week, ik verheug mij op het weekend – I’m looking forward to the weekend.

Some zich verbs in Dutch are expressed with “get” in English: zich aankleden – to get dressed, zich klaarmaken – to get ready. Other times, it depends on the meaning. Hij stelde zich voor – he introduced himself; but dat kan ik mij best voorstellen means I can just imagine.

Once you start looking into Serhani’s background, you find a trail of trickery across the globe. He’s even known on remote Hamilton Island, where he was dubbed King Con after leaving behind enormous bills. They know him in Sydney, where he was arrested; incredibly, he was given bail. He says he thought up the wheeze after watching Eddie Murphy in the movie Coming to America and turned the role on its head. He even taunts the police on YouTube to catch him if they can.

So if you’re bored – als je je verveelt, look up Abdelkarim on the internet. Feeling sorry for the charming bedrieger? Maak je geen zorgen – don’t worry, he’ll probably sweet-talk the police into giving him bail and lending him a car to get home.