British police are investigating the man who claimed to be offering a 77 million yen reward in last year's search for hostess Lucie Blackman on suspicion of fraud.

Tim Blackman, the father of 21-year-old Lucie, said Essex County Constabulary contacted him earlier this year to inquire whether the man had offered his services as a "middle-man" in an effort to track down Lucie immediately after her disappearance on July 1, 2000.

"He was nothing but a con artist," Blackman said. "My daughter was missing in a country on the other side of the world and he just wanted to make money out of me."

He confirmed that he did give a sum of money as expenses to the man, whom police have requested not be named until the investigation is completed.

The man contacted The Japan Times on Aug. 31 last year to offer a reward of 100,000 British pounds, or 16.5 million yen, for information leading to Lucie's return, increasing the fund to 500,000 British pounds -- some 77 million yen -- on Sept. 22.

He claimed to be an "international businessman with a heart and enough money" who just wanted to see "Lucie reunited with her family."

The man contacted the Blackman family soon after Lucie's disappearance was reported in the British media with the offer of assistance, suggesting putting up the reward and getting help from his "underworld contacts," for a fee.

He told The Japan Times that the money would be deposited with a lawyer in Britain and would be provided to anyone who could trace her.

Speaking from his home on the Isle of Wight, in southern England, Blackman admitted that he had misgivings about the man but was looking to explore each and every avenue that might find his daughter.

"At that point I had nothing to lose," he said. "Lucie had been missing for two months and we had no idea where to even start looking."

Lucie's dismembered body was discovered buried in a beachside cave in Misaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Feb. 9. She had apparently died from an overdose of a sleeping drug on the day she disappeared after going on a date with a customer from the hostess club in Tokyo's Roppongi district where she worked.

Joji Obara, a Tokyo businessman, has pleaded not guilty to causing her death. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 12 at the Tokyo District Court.

Essex police are also investigating the man on suspicion of contacting the families of two British men apparently seized in the jungles of Colombia by rebel forces last year with a similar offer of help to secure their safe return.