A lawyer for the man who allegedly helped kidnap a Coulsdon model has claimed the case could be a "sham" invented as a "publicity stunt."

Chloe Ayling was reportedly snatched by a group calling itself Black Death after being lured to a fake modelling shoot in Milan in July.

Ms Ayling is believed to have been drugged and transported in a bag to an isolated village near Turin, where she was held for six days as her captors tried to auction her online.

Since then, questions have arisen over the legitimacy of those claims. These include the one made by Lukasz Herba's lawyer, George Hepburne Scott.

Herba is in custody in Italy, having been arrested after delivering Ms Ayling to the British Embassy on July 17 - six days after she was allegedly kidnapped. He has said he did not knowingly take part in any crime.

Mr Scott said: "There is a real risk that the entire case is a sham."

Ms Ayling's former agent Phil Green has previously told ITV's Good Morning Britain that the 20-year-old received £200,000 worth of offers of work when she returned to the UK and has since moved to a new modelling agency.

The lawyer also pointed to an alleged incident during which Ms Ayling and her captor went shopping for shoes, calling it a "wholly anomalous feature of a hostage situation."

She also went to breakfast with the kidnapper before her release when the pair found the British consulate was closed, Mr Scott said.

"It would amount to an abuse of process of the court if there was any evidence to suggest this was a publicity stunt," he told the judge.

"This case has a unique set of anomalies which might lead to the conclusion that the Italian authorities have been duped and that their process has been abused."

Herba appeared in custody at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday to fight extradition.

District Judge Paul Goldspring pointed out much of the material relied on by Mr Scott came from press reports, which he said did not prove any of the theories in the case. He will give his ruling on Friday.