French police are looking for a notorious British conman who was the focus of the Netflix documentary “Puppet Master” after he used unbelievable claims to con women out of money and is wanted for allegedly hurting two cops while evading an identity check, authorities said today.
According to reports, conman Robert Hendy-Freegard, 51, struck the police officers with his Audi A3 as he tried to flee from his hiding place in the rural village of Vidaillat in the sparsely inhabited Creuse area of central France.
On Thursday, police and labour inspectors conducted an investigation at the beagle breeding facility Hendy-Freegard co-owned with his reclusive partner Sandra Clifton, 49.
Police in the Creuse region reported that the suspect began his car, hit two officers, and fled when they asked one of the partners to follow them to the closest station.
One police officer received treatment for more serious injuries, including “many fractures,” and is still in the hospital, while the other received care for less severe wounds.
Former salesperson and bartender Hendy-Freegard is a well-known con artist who duped a number of people with impeccable reputations into believing he was an undercover MI5 agent and that they were IRA targets because they knew him.
Several of his victims spent several years hiding. All of them ultimately gave him money, and he used that $1 million to indulge in his James Bond fantasies of fast vehicles, lavish travel, and designer clothes.
In 2005, Hendy-Freegard was sentenced to life in prison by a London court for fraud, theft, and kidnapping after a unique trial that featured testimony from seven people he defrauded of money.
He was released from prison in 2009 after the kidnapping charges were ultimately dropped, and he was the focus of the popular Netflix documentary series “The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman.”
Later, Hendy-Freegard relocated to France, and Vidaillat’s mayor, Martine Laporte, claimed that the con artist had been residing in the community since 2015.
By Friday afternoon, a significant police operation was underway in France to try to track down the fugitive.
A gendarmerie spokeswoman added, “All the department’s soldiers have been sent, together with a gendarmerie helicopter, to try to find this guy.”
Hendy-Freegard has been accused of coercively controlling Ms. Clifton by her children, although he disputes the allegations, according to the judicial sources.
Hendy-Freegard initially pretended to be a registered dog breeder until he met Ms. Clifton in 2012.
Under a fictitious name, he displayed his Beagles at the Crufts dog show, but he stopped going in 2015 after his real identity was revealed.
Ms. Clifton’s son Jake and daughter Sophie, both in their 20s, said in the Netflix documentary “Puppet Master” that she vanished after meeting him. They said they haven’t seen their mother since 2014 and that Hendy-Freegard now has authority over her.
Hendy-Freegard and Ms. Clifton were given permission by the French government to end their dog breeding operation in March.
According to rumours, Robert Hendy-Freegard travels about Europe under the guises of David Hendy and David Clifton. French advised anyone who sees him to proceed cautiously before contacting the police.
Hendy-Freegard was alleged to have lived by the maxim “Lies have to be huge to be believable” throughout his London trial.
When the conman first struck, John Atkinson, the son of a wealthy farmer, and Sarah Smith, his then-girlfriend, were in Newport, Shropshire.
He first told John that he was an undercover MI5 agent looking into an IRA cell.
Hendy-Freegard coerced Atkinson into allowing himself to be beaten in order to demonstrate his allegiance and that he was “hard enough.” In order to demonstrate his dedication and to isolate him from friends, he also persuaded him to act strangely while in college.
Then, in April 1993, Hendy-Freegard abruptly said that both of them had to go covert when his MI5 “cover was broken.”
He informed Maria Hendy, a friend of Sarah’s, that John had cancer and persuaded her to join them on a “farewell tour” of England.
All three of them left their homes and went “on the run,” doing strange “missions” across the nation, before relocating to a leased “safe house” in Sheffield.
He advised them to cut off all ties to their families because just being around him put them in risk.
Sarah remembered events that happened throughout the trial, including being transferred to a so-called “safe home” with a bucket over her head, having to hide in cabinets to avoid visitors, and being held in a bathroom for three weeks without food.
He had persuaded her that if she ventured to leave, a sniper would shoot her.
Sarah, John’s girlfriend, was forced to work in a chip store while John was told to find work as a bartender.
They practically had nothing to live on because they paid their oppressor their salary immediately away.
Hendy-Freegard forbade the three from leaving their Sheffield apartment, so they remained there for five months.
Sarah’s hunger drove her to eat the remaining chip batter.
The buddies, like all of his victims, were coerced into giving him money from their families, which Hendy-Freegard then used to live out his James Bond fantasies.
Over time, he acquired seven BMWs, an £80,000 Aston Martin Volante, Rolex watches, and Savile Row outfits in addition to other luxury items.
The group eventually broke up, others took employment while continuing to give Hendy-Freegard the majority of their earnings, and Maria started dating him. He had two daughters born to her.
Maria ultimately confronted him after learning of his past affairs, and he assaulted her and threatened to murder her before claiming that she was not allowed to speak to anybody for “security reasons.”
As he gained confidence, Hendy-Freegard was able to control up to five victims at once, keeping them in separate “safe houses” across the nation while employing a combination of menace and appeal to keep them in his grip.
John and his parents were persuaded to donate Hendy-Freegard £300,000 by her. He was placed through fake training assignments.
He occasionally had to wait days in one location for a meeting that never happened.
The story started to fall apart after he eventually revealed to his sister that the IRA was after him.
He always started his crimes the same manner. On social outings or as clients in the bar or auto dealership where he worked, he would run into victims.
Later, he would admit that he was an undercover operative for Scotland Yard, MI5, or Special Branch operating against the IRA.
He would charm them, demand money from them, and then order them to do his bidding.
Then he ordered them to sever all ties to friends and family, submit to “loyalty tests,” and live in substandard conditions alone.
All of them had to complete peculiar assignments that, according to him, were “tests” assigned by their purported “spymasters.”
Because he had told them that the police would be double agents or MI5 operatives conducting another “loyalty test,” his female victims frequently refused to cooperate with the police, even though he would say he was going to marry them.
Elisabeth Bartholomew née Richardson, another of his victims, developed an obsession with him despite recently being married.
She claimed in court testimony that she would have travelled anywhere to be with Robert because he was so good in bed.
He instructed her to take out loans, ostensibly to pay off her obligations from her divorce.
Hendy-Freegard, meanwhile, connected with successful attorney Caroline Cowper in 2000 through a Chiswick, West London, auto dealership.
He assisted her in switching her automobile, pocketed the difference, demanded more, convinced her to give more money for a leasing company they would co-own, and then took £14,000 from her building society account.
Before getting engaged, they fell in love and travelled the world together.
When the leased car did not show up despite her family’s intervention, he informed her that the Polish Mafia had kidnapped it.
Two years later, he used tales of how he had penetrated a criminal network and executed a criminal who had threatened to expose him to attract American child psychologist Kimberley Adams.
He proposed to Dr. Adams a few weeks into their 14-month romance, but he stipulated that she become a spy, leave her Reading position, forgo all future employment opportunities, and have no contact with her family.
He pushed for identity changes and loyalty tests.
In the meantime, he dumped her anti-depressant medicines down the toilet and ordered her to spend three months in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, with her “very humble” mother.
In Newcastle, he also informed Leslie Gardner that he required money to pay off IRA killers who had been freed as a result of the Good Friday Agreement.
Six years and £16,000 were given to him. Additionally, he sold her automobile and kept the proceeds.
A sting operation was planned in 2002 by Scotland Yard and the FBI. First, the FBI bugged the parents’ phone of Kimberley.
Hendy-Freegard was informed by her mother that she would give her £10,000, but only in person.
At Heathrow Airport, where he was later detained by police, Hendy-Freegard met her.
He maintained this narrative throughout the subsequent trial, denying all allegations and saying they were all part of a plot against him.
Blackfriars Crown Court found Robert Hendy-Freegard guilty of two acts of kidnapping, ten counts of theft, and eight counts of deceit on June 23, 2005, following an eight-month trial. He was sentenced to life in prison on September 6, 2005.
Robert Hendy-Freegard successfully challenged his kidnapping convictions on April 25, 2007, and he was overturned. Even though his life sentence was overturned, he still had to serve nine years for the other crimes.
The Court of Appeal ruling was crucial in establishing kidnapping as a contemporary crime.
Hendy-Freegard is currently seeing Sandra Clifton and frequently competes in dog shows as David Clifton.
When they first started dating in 2012, Hendy-Freegard told her he worked in the “advertising world” and purchased her a showy automobile.
Hendy-suggestion Freegard’s that Jake, who was 16 at the time, was gay caused him to be shut out of the house, and Sandra’s relationship with her kids started to deteriorate.
Sophie cut off contact with her brother and father and now thinks Hendy-Freegard manipulated her.
She revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times magazine that she kept all of her father’s letters to her assuring her he loved her in an envelope labelled “The Lies and Slander of Mr. Mark Clifton” that was posted to the noticeboard in her bedroom.
In 2014, Sophie was reunited with her father and brother after Sandra and Hendy-Freegard vanished.
When the two searched online for “David Clifton,” they learned that his real name was Hendy-Freegard. They were desperate to find their mother.
However, Sandra ignored the questions when police located her and informed her of her companions.
Sandra has been absent from family life for seven years, during which time her parents have both passed away and she hasn’t shown up for their funerals.
Jake attempted to put his mother’s inheritance of the family home into trust last year in order to protect it for her.
In response to Sandra’s challenge, the two appeared in court together for the first time in years.
She declared that Jake had attempted to steal from her. The issue is that my mother has been controlled and conditioned to say and do whatever Freegard wishes.
She said, “I’m not bothered,” when the police located her and told her they wanted to speak with her and find out who she was with. I am aware of my companion.
Accusations that Hendy-Freegard is mistreating his new spouse have been categorically refuted.