THIS is the awkward moment a fuming Ben Shephard lost his temper at The Tinder Swindler on This Morning as he branded him “distasteful.”

The conman shot to infamy after a Netflix documentary exposed him as the man who allegedly defrauded singletons out of more than £7million.

 

The Tinder Swindler, real name Simon Leviev, appeared on the ITV show today to speak about “turning over a new leaf.”

But, host Ben Shephard saw right through his act as he savagely cut him off and called him out.

Ben asked Simon if he had any remorse for the victims and he replied that “it’s a nice story” before the TV host savagely cut him off.

Ben ranted: “Simon! Simon! Simon! I think quantifying it as nice is really distasteful and of course it’s not a ‘nice’ story.

“I think what your saying is a narrative, an interesting narrative and there’s nothing nice about The Tinder Swindler and there’s nothing nice about what it is that these women went through and they have accused you of.

“Nice, is not a word that I think that is suitable in this position.”

The Tinder Swindler then revealed he was launching a dating app named “Safe Love,” because he knows the “breaking points” of what’s currently on the market.

This again got Ben hot under the collar as he asked: “So you’re admitting that you know how to get around previous dating apps that are out there?”

The Tinder Swindler agreed saying: “I do know how to get out, I lived 10 years on a false passport so, yeah I do know how to lie, I do know how to cheat and I do know how to manipulate.

“It’s not something I hide, I falsify a cheque, I live ten years under a false identity. When I was 20 years old, I travelled on a 36-year-old’s passport, so yes I crossed hundreds of border controls around the world.”

He added: “Obviously I’ve been convicted, obviously I’m not proud of it, but it makes me a set of skills that some other people don’t have.”

But Ben was quick to interrupt saying: “I’m gonna be honest Simon… I’m really sorry, you say you’re not proud of it but it certainly sounds like you’re proud of it.

 

 

“It certainly sounds like the notoriety, what you’ve achieved, what you’ve been through and yes you have been in jail and served your time for a number of crimes, not all the crimes you’ve been accused of.

“But it certainly sounds like you’re listing those things like accolades, which means you are perfectly positioned to now launch another business rather than saying because I have done all these things I want to turn over a new leaf.”

The host continued: “There will be people watching this today who think it’s really distasteful that you’re launching a dating app… You’re notorious for being anything other than trustworthy.”

In the 2022 documentary, The Tinder Swindler, Simon posed as an Israeli diamond billionaire, who took women on lavish dates before coercing them to take out loans, credit cards and handing over cash.

While he was not convicted of those alleged crimes, he has been convicted of five counts of fraud, theft and forging signatures on stolen cheques, resulting in two short prison stints.