Fake spy guilty of kidnapping con
A former bartender has been found guilty of kidnapping and theft in an elaborate spy con that lasted 10 years.
Robert Hendy-Freegard, 34, of Blyth, Nottinghamshire, conned his victims out of a potential £1m by persuading them they were being hunted by the IRA.
Blackfriars Crown Court heard he forced his victims to endure squalid lives and made them perform loyalty tests.
He denied all 24 charges, but was convicted of two counts of kidnap, ten of theft and eight of deception.
Lives in danger
Hendy-Freegard was cleared of two kidnap counts, one of theft and one of making a threat to kill at the end of an eight-month trial.
Judge Deva Pillay warned Hendy-Freegard he faced a life term when sentence is passed on Monday.
Three of his victims - agriculture students Sarah Smith, Maria Hendy and John Atkinson - were convinced their lives were in danger, the court heard.
Hendy-Freegard, who worked at a pub in Newport, Shropshire, when the con began in 1992, told them he was an MI5 agent and that they were being hunted by the IRA.
The three friends were told not to contact their families because their phones were bugged.
The court heard his first two victims were "kidnapped by fraud" - one of the few times such an offence has been successfully prosecuted - by claiming terrorists were on their trail.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/4114640.stm
