It's a pity last letter's been removed by charlatan (4)

I believe the answer is:

sham

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'charlatan' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

I don't understand the rest of the clue.

(Other definitions for sham that I've seen before include "Pretence, hoax" , "imitation" , "Counterfeit or insincere" , "Phoney kind of hams" , "Phoney sort of hams" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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