Two gendarmes were “severely wounded” in Vidailot this Thursday afternoon when they were knocked down by a British driver who was now on the run. The suspect, still on the run, is known across the channel: Robert Hendy-Fregard is a fraud who was the subject of a documentary series on Netflix.
This Thursday afternoon, a 51-year-old man was driving an Audi A3 At Cruz, Vidaillet, “severely” replaced two gendarmes.. The suspect, on the run and desperately wanted by the police, is none other than Robert Hendy-Freegaard, a British national whose name is well-known across the Channel and notably the subject of a Netflix series.
In the 90s, and until his arrest in 2002, the man pretended to be an MI5 spy, conning women and extorting a total of more than a million pounds from them. BFMTV.com takes on what we know about Brittain’s profile.
• A car salesman, fake MI5 spy
Robert Hendy-Freegaard was born in 1971 in the North East of England. A bartender then car salesman, the man played a spy for the British secret service MI5 in the 1990s. By this “cover”, Robert Hendy-Friegaard, calling himself David Hendy or David Clifton, Cheats many people, mostly women.
The fraudster is forced to go into hiding and cut themselves off from their families in order to escape the IRA and Irish Republican Army, who target female students in particular and seek to kill them. The bogus spy provides them with “protection” against a large financial contribution. In total, the fake spy extorted more than a million pounds from victims.
• Sentenced to life imprisonment before release
In 2002, Robert Hendy-Freegaard was arrested in a joint British police and FBI operation after attempting to defraud an American child psychologist.
After an eight-month trial, the fraudster was sentenced to life in prison by a British judge in 2005 for kidnapping, cheating, stealing from students and girls. “He was able to take power and control the lives of his victims,” forcing them to live in “abject poverty,” explained Bob Brandon, the police officer in charge of the investigation, during the trial.
The man appealed and was acquitted in 2009, after an appeals court overturned his conviction for kidnapping.
• A new life in France
Now freed, Robert Hendy-Fregaard moved to France in 2015. He moved to the small village of Vidailat with his partner, Sandra Clifton, whom he met on a dating site in 2011.
If Britton went home “very rarely” and was isolated, the village’s mayor says his companion lived there “absolutely alone” and “totally under the influence”.
• Control of his deteriorating dog breed
In France, Robert Hendy-Fregard devotes himself to dog breeding: according to the mayor, the couple shelters almost 30 dogs. Breeding, which is illegal, has been targeted by several reports from the municipality over the past two years. In June, the request for closure was decided by the province of the department, our colleagues note Parisian.
On Thursday, gendarmes were dispatched to transfer the dogs to the SPA under the control of DETSPP, which is responsible among other things for animal welfare. They reach the spot around 9.30 am. Sandra Clifton is the only one on the scene, as is Robert Hendy-Freegaard, who doesn’t arrive until late afternoon.
That’s when, according to Cruz Province, “the gendarmerie asked one of the spouses to go to the nearest brigade,” The man “started his vehicle and struck the two soldiers before fleeing.”.
Gendarmes prescribed 21 and six days of ITT. An investigation was opened by the Guéret prosecutor’s office for “attempted intentional homicide against a person holding public authority.”
• A man described as “creepy” by neighbors
Before his hit-and-run, Robert Hendy-Freegaard already had a bad reputation in the neighborhood. “We have known for 4-5 years that he is a scoundrel,” said AFP reporter Serge, who did not want to be named, a neighbor of the couple’s stone house. , today with closed shutters.
“We were scared, we’re still scared. He’s a crazy, dangerous guy,” a neighbor, witnessing the facts, told BFMTV’s microphone. As for her companion, Sandra Clifton, residents of Vidaillot assure her that she “lived in terrible conditions.” A first neighbor told AFP that she “never went outside except in her small yard and was reduced to eating raw chestnuts and croquettes”.
“Her hobby was picking up dog waste (…) and she spent her days doing that,” another neighbor told our microphone.
• The subject of a Netflix documentary series and a movie
The relationship between Robert Hendy-Friegaard and Sarah Clifton was mentioned in a documentary that aired on Netflix from earlier this year, in which the Briton is the hero. In “The Puppetmaster: Lessons in Manipulation,” Sarah Clifton’s children claim that the con artist gradually took her away from them.
“I haven’t seen my mother for 7 years,” said her son. Her children did not even know “where she was,” they said. Found and contacted by the municipality last February, the city’s mayor, Martin Laporte, said her companion’s children thought she was actually missing.
Robert Hendy-Fregaard is also the hero of the Netflix movie titled “Rogue Agent” with James Norton and Gemma Arterton.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
Video – Cruise: The Great Responsibility of British Scammer Robert Hendy-Freegaard Across the Channel
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