A infamous conman who spent 4 years in a British jail has now been sentenced to 6 years in France for ramming his automobile into two policemen whereas making an attempt to keep away from questioning.
Robert Hendy-Freegard, 53, had moved to a rural space of central France to breed beagles illegally a number of years in the past underneath a false identify.
Neighbours had already been suspicious of him earlier than two Netflix documentaries highlighted his actions as a conman.
Hendy-Freegard had posed as an MI5 spy to con ladies and college students out of £1m, however he was launched after 4 years when a few of his convictions had been overturned on enchantment.
Representing himself on the court docket in Gueret, he mentioned he had not been aggressive however he was frightened sick.
“I had sufficient. I panicked,” he instructed the court docket, apologising to the 2 gendarmes he had pushed into within the tiny village of Vidaillat west of Clermont-Ferrand.
“I did not cease as a result of I am a human being with feelings.”
Prosecutor Alexandra Pethieu mentioned the agricultural space was not a conflict zone: “And but that day ended up with a bewildering scene worthy of Mad Max.”
One officer was knocked down and one other was thrown in opposition to the automobile windscreen for a number of metres.
Hendy-Freegard, who instructed the court docket his actual identify was David Hendy, was launched a number of years early on enchantment within the UK after his kidnapping costs had been quashed.
Witnesses at his 2005 trial within the UK had described how that they had been subjected to years of poverty due to the facility he had over them. Coercive or controlling behaviour finally grew to become a felony offence in 2015 in England and Wales.
Hendy-Freegard was launched from jail in 2009, and moved to France in 2015 to begin a beagle canine breeding enterprise together with his accomplice Sandra Clifton.
Nevertheless neighbours started to suspect Clifton was underneath his management.
When an preliminary documentary got here out in 2022, The Puppet Grasp: Looking the Final Conman, they contacted her kids who had used the programme to enchantment for assist in discovering her.
Clifton’s son travelled to the village and the beagles had been being eliminated by a neighborhood charity when Hendy-Freegard arrived. As the 2 gendarmes requested the ex-conman questions he drove off, hitting the officers and escaping to Belgium.
He was later extradited and has spent greater than two years in custody earlier than happening trial for working over the 2 officers.
Hendy-Freegard denied that his accomplice had been underneath his coercive management, telling the court docket that his neighbours had an issue with him due to the documentary.
Nevertheless, Martine Laporte, the mayor of Vidaillat, mentioned that what had emerged from the trial was that “he’s manipulative to the tip and that is not going to alter”.
“He actually must be stopped as a result of if he will get out he’ll begin once more and that is worrying,” she was quoted as saying by French media.
