Serial fraudster 'forged au pair documents to steal children'

A serial fraudster has been arrested and charged with stealing two young children after allegedly posing as an au pair in regional Victoria.

Convicted criminal Samantha Azzopardi was with a four-year-old girl and a 10-month-old baby when police swooped on her at Bendigo's Pall Mall on Friday.

The Sydney woman forged documents to get a job as an au pair before her arrest, police allege.

Azzopardi has previously served jail time and amassed over 40 aliases around the world.

The 31-year-old has gained an international reputation after posing as a teenager and enrolling in high school in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and as far abroad as Ireland and Canada.

In June, it emerged that she had posed as an au pair for a Melbourne couple, living at their Brighton East home and looking after their young daughter.

Azzopardi has been charged with two counts of child stealing as well as stating a false name over this latest incident.

She is also charged with handling stolen goods after allegedly being found in July with a passport and driver's licence, stolen from a Brighton East woman last year.

The accused child snatcher was remanded in police custody to appear in the Bendigo Magistrates Court on Monday.

The allegedly abducted children have been returned to their parents unharmed.