Serial conman Robert Hendy-Freegard was inspired by Hollywood spy caper True Lies. Freegard swindled victims out of an estimated ?1 Million by pretending to be an MI5 agent. He was obsessed with the movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Paxton. He watched it time and time again, then put inot practice some of the tricks perfected by Arnie's character undercover man Harry Tasker.
But according to a former pal, he actually modelled his own trickster role on Simon played by Paxton. In the film Simon woos his way into the life of Harry's wife Helen (Curtis) by pretending to be a spook. In fact, he is a used car salesman...just like real-life Freegard. Freegard's former friend said: "The likeness between Robert and Simon in that film are uncanny. He used to go and watch it all the time. Everyone who knew Robert well knew he was full of shit. But obviously the tricks he picked up from the film helped him fool people."
Freegard, 34, convinced at least seven women and one man that he was in the MI5 and that the IRA were after him. He told his victims that they were now in danger too because they knew him and he needed money to obtain new identities for them. Over ten years, several of them were persuaded to live in hiding, handing over all their cash. One victim survived on one Mars bar a week. Student Sarah Smith, now 35, was forced by Freegard to take a job in a chippy as "cover" and lived off the batter from the bottom of the fryer. Another victim walked 110 miles for a non-existent meeting with an MI5 "contact". One lived rough at an airport for three weeks. Maria Hendy, now 37, had two children by Freegard although he beat her "to toughen her up".
Those duped included a lawyer, a car dealer, a child psychologist and a company director. Eventually, Freegard was rumbled by a solicitor. The conman, of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, is now facing a life sentence after a jury at London's Blackfriars Crown Court found him guilty of 20 charges, including theft, kidnap and deception. Police believe there may be more victims, still living in hiding and in fear of terrorists. But Freegard's mother Bobbie still believes her son is innocent. She said "So many people have told me he could not have done all these things. It's just not possible. I think it's just too many women scorned. It's like something out of a film."My instant reaction when i read this in today's Daily Star (or Star On Sunday whatever you wanna call it) was
. Now was this guy a master, was he really talented or were all these people just really stupid. I mean the kind of things they did, they were really convinced...i mean 1 Mars bar a week as food, walking 110 miles to meet someone who never showed up. What i especially like is who he based himself on,
Bill Paxton is my favourite actor and i wonder what he'll think when he finds out he was the inspiration to a criminal mastermind. You've got to love his mum's reaction;
"It's like something out of a film"...indeed it is
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