Robert Hendy-Freegard
Encyclopedia
Robert Hendy-Freegard is a British
barman, car
sales
man, conman
and impostor
who masqueraded as an MI5
agent and fooled several people to go underground for fear of IRA
assassination
. He was born in Hodthorpe
, a small village
near Whitwell
, in Derbyshire
.
, Special Branch
or Scotland Yard
working against the IRA
. He would win them over, ask for money and make them do his bidding. He demanded that they cut off contact with family and friends, go through "loyalty tests" and live alone in poor conditions. He seduced five women, claiming that he wanted to marry them. Initially some of the victims refused to cooperate with the police because he had warned them that police would be double agent
s or MI5 agents performing another "loyalty test".
A television documentary called "The Spy who stole my Life" was shown by Channel Five on 7 September 2005. In Australia, this was called "The spy who conned me".
and befriended two women and one man, three agriculture students of the Harper Adams Agricultural College in Edgmond
.
First, he told the man that he was an MI5 undercover agent who was investigating an IRA cell in the college. He forced the man to let himself be beaten up to prove his loyalty and to show that he was “hard enough”. He also convinced him to behave in a bizarre manner in college to prove his loyalty and to alienate him from friends. Then Hendy-Freegard told him his cover was blown and both of them had to go undercover. He told the women that the man had cancer and convinced them to accompany them in a “farewell tour” all over England.
Later he let them in on “the story”. He told them to sever all contact with their families because they were in danger just through being associated with him. They moved to Sheffield
and gave him all their money. The three spent five months in a Sheffield flat because Hendy-Freegard had forbidden them to go out.
The group eventually split up, others took jobs — still handing most of their money to Hendy-Freegard — and one of the women became his lover. She gave birth to his two daughters. When she eventually found out about his other affairs and confronted him, he beat her up and threatened to kill her before he told her that she could not talk to anyone for “security reasons”.
Hendy-Freegard convinced the man and his parents to give him £300,000. He was put into “training”, performing spurious jobs. Sometimes he would have to wait for days in a certain place for a non-existent meeting. Eventually, he told his sister that the IRA was pursuing him, and the tale began to unravel.
officer it was because she was sexually abused as a child. Her loyalty tests included sleeping in Heathrow airport and on park benches for several nights and pretending to be a Jehovah's Witness so that his bosses in MI5 would let them marry. She was told she was under constant surveillance and once that a sniper
was watching their home. He told her to take up loans, supposedly to settle her debts.
In 2000 Hendy-Freegard met a lawyer, a customer in the car dealership in Chiswick
, West London
. He helped her to change her car, pocketed the difference, asked for more, persuaded her to give more money for a leasing business they would run together and stole £14,000 from her building society
account. They became lovers and went on holidays all over the world. They then became engaged but her family intervened. When the leasing car did not materialize, he told her that the Polish Mafia had taken it.
In 2002 Hendy-Freegard seduced a US
child psychologist with tales of how he had infiltrated a criminal network and how he had killed a criminal who had threatened to expose him. He said he wanted to marry her, on condition that she would also become an agent and cut off the contact with her family. He instigated loyalty tests and a change of identity. He urged her to kill her son and told her that he had taken a contract out for the murder of both of them. He told her that they would move to a lighthouse
and when she refused to live there, he wanted £80,000 to repay the state because the arrangements had already been made. She got the money from her father as payment for "spy school". At one stage she spent three weeks "hiding" in a bathroom, locked in there by Freegard.
jeweller to give the mother of his children a room for a time and later tried to recruit him into the "organization". Hendy-Freegard also sent him to perform spurious missions as "training" - like sending him to London with strict instructions of what transportation to use, to buy a can opener in a certain shop and hand it over to a certain man in a certain pub. When the victim's "controller" seemed excessively amused when told about his trip, he grew suspicious and demanded to see his boss. There was no one in the meeting.
Hendy-Freegard convinced a female company director that he was watching someone in the Sheffield car dealership where he was working and convinced her to buy a better car. He sold her original car on his own account, kept the money and convinced her to take a £15,000 loan for him. He also again asked for a room for the mother of his children because she was supposedly in a witness protection program and told her that she was Spanish, so that the two women would not speak to each other.
Hendy-Freegard told a woman in Newcastle
that he needed money to buy off IRA killers, who had been released after the Good Friday agreement. She gave him £16,000 over six years. He also sold her car and again kept the money.
organized a sting operation
. First, the FBI bugged the phone of the American psychologist's parents. Her mother told Hendy-Freegard she would hand over £10,000 but only in person. Hendy-Freegard met the mother in Heathrow airport where police apprehended him. He denied all charges and claimed they were part of a conspiracy against him and continued this story in the subsequent trial.
On 23 June 2005, after an eight month trial, Blackfriars Crown Court convicted Robert Hendy-Freegard for two counts of kidnapping
, 10 of theft
and 8 of deception. On 6 September 2005 he was given a life sentence. Police doubt that they have discovered all the victims.
On 25 April 2007, the BBC reported that Robert Hendy-Freegard had appealed against his kidnapping convictions and won. This means that the life sentence is revoked but he will still serve nine years for the other offences.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
barman, car
Čar
Čar is a village in the municipality of Bujanovac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 296 people.-References:...
sales
Sales
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....
man, conman
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
and impostor
Impostor
An impostor or imposter is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but just as often for purposes of espionage or law enforcement....
who masqueraded as an MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
agent and fooled several people to go underground for fear of IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
. He was born in Hodthorpe
Hodthorpe
Hodthorpe is an urban village in the parish of Whitwell, Bolsover, Derbyshire, lying close to the Nottinghamshire border and on the edge of Sherwood Forest. The village has two principal streets, Queens Road and Kings Street. It has one shop, a Post Office, a village primary school, and a Working...
, a small village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
near Whitwell
Whitwell, Derbyshire
Whitwell is a small village located in Derbyshire, England.Although Whitwell celebrated its 1,000th anniversary in the 'Whitwell 1000' Celebrations of 1989 it is much older than this celebration suggests.The earliest written references to Whitwell are from the Anglo-Saxon charters however many of...
, in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
.
Methods
Hendy-Freegard met his victims on social occasions or as customers in the pub or car dealership where he was working. He would reveal his "role" as an undercover agent for MI5MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
or Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
working against the IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
. He would win them over, ask for money and make them do his bidding. He demanded that they cut off contact with family and friends, go through "loyalty tests" and live alone in poor conditions. He seduced five women, claiming that he wanted to marry them. Initially some of the victims refused to cooperate with the police because he had warned them that police would be double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
s or MI5 agents performing another "loyalty test".
A television documentary called "The Spy who stole my Life" was shown by Channel Five on 7 September 2005. In Australia, this was called "The spy who conned me".
First victims
In 1992 Robert Freegard was working in The Swan, a pub in Newport, ShropshireNewport, Shropshire
Newport is a market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies some north of Telford and some west of Stafford sitting on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border...
and befriended two women and one man, three agriculture students of the Harper Adams Agricultural College in Edgmond
Edgmond, Shropshire
Edgmond is a village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies 1 mile north-west of the town of Newport.Harper Adams University College is in Edgmond...
.
First, he told the man that he was an MI5 undercover agent who was investigating an IRA cell in the college. He forced the man to let himself be beaten up to prove his loyalty and to show that he was “hard enough”. He also convinced him to behave in a bizarre manner in college to prove his loyalty and to alienate him from friends. Then Hendy-Freegard told him his cover was blown and both of them had to go undercover. He told the women that the man had cancer and convinced them to accompany them in a “farewell tour” all over England.
Later he let them in on “the story”. He told them to sever all contact with their families because they were in danger just through being associated with him. They moved to Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and gave him all their money. The three spent five months in a Sheffield flat because Hendy-Freegard had forbidden them to go out.
The group eventually split up, others took jobs — still handing most of their money to Hendy-Freegard — and one of the women became his lover. She gave birth to his two daughters. When she eventually found out about his other affairs and confronted him, he beat her up and threatened to kill her before he told her that she could not talk to anyone for “security reasons”.
Hendy-Freegard convinced the man and his parents to give him £300,000. He was put into “training”, performing spurious jobs. Sometimes he would have to wait for days in a certain place for a non-existent meeting. Eventually, he told his sister that the IRA was pursuing him, and the tale began to unravel.
Other seductions
Hendy-Freegard also seduced a newly married personal assistant who was taking care of his children. He told her he was with MI5 and forced her to cut contact with friends and family lest the IRA would kill her. He also took naked pictures of her and threatened to give them to her husband if she would not cooperate. She had to change her name and tell the deed pollDeed poll
A deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention...
officer it was because she was sexually abused as a child. Her loyalty tests included sleeping in Heathrow airport and on park benches for several nights and pretending to be a Jehovah's Witness so that his bosses in MI5 would let them marry. She was told she was under constant surveillance and once that a sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
was watching their home. He told her to take up loans, supposedly to settle her debts.
In 2000 Hendy-Freegard met a lawyer, a customer in the car dealership in Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
, West London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He helped her to change her car, pocketed the difference, asked for more, persuaded her to give more money for a leasing business they would run together and stole £14,000 from her building society
Building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...
account. They became lovers and went on holidays all over the world. They then became engaged but her family intervened. When the leasing car did not materialize, he told her that the Polish Mafia had taken it.
In 2002 Hendy-Freegard seduced a US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
child psychologist with tales of how he had infiltrated a criminal network and how he had killed a criminal who had threatened to expose him. He said he wanted to marry her, on condition that she would also become an agent and cut off the contact with her family. He instigated loyalty tests and a change of identity. He urged her to kill her son and told her that he had taken a contract out for the murder of both of them. He told her that they would move to a lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
and when she refused to live there, he wanted £80,000 to repay the state because the arrangements had already been made. She got the money from her father as payment for "spy school". At one stage she spent three weeks "hiding" in a bathroom, locked in there by Freegard.
Other victims
Hendy-Freegard convinced a SheffieldSheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
jeweller to give the mother of his children a room for a time and later tried to recruit him into the "organization". Hendy-Freegard also sent him to perform spurious missions as "training" - like sending him to London with strict instructions of what transportation to use, to buy a can opener in a certain shop and hand it over to a certain man in a certain pub. When the victim's "controller" seemed excessively amused when told about his trip, he grew suspicious and demanded to see his boss. There was no one in the meeting.
Hendy-Freegard convinced a female company director that he was watching someone in the Sheffield car dealership where he was working and convinced her to buy a better car. He sold her original car on his own account, kept the money and convinced her to take a £15,000 loan for him. He also again asked for a room for the mother of his children because she was supposedly in a witness protection program and told her that she was Spanish, so that the two women would not speak to each other.
Hendy-Freegard told a woman in Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
that he needed money to buy off IRA killers, who had been released after the Good Friday agreement. She gave him £16,000 over six years. He also sold her car and again kept the money.
Arrest and trial
In 2002 Scotland Yard and the FBIFederal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
organized a sting operation
Sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. A typical sting will have a law-enforcement officer or cooperative member of the public play a role as criminal partner or potential victim and go along with a suspect's actions to gather...
. First, the FBI bugged the phone of the American psychologist's parents. Her mother told Hendy-Freegard she would hand over £10,000 but only in person. Hendy-Freegard met the mother in Heathrow airport where police apprehended him. He denied all charges and claimed they were part of a conspiracy against him and continued this story in the subsequent trial.
On 23 June 2005, after an eight month trial, Blackfriars Crown Court convicted Robert Hendy-Freegard for two counts of kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, 10 of theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
and 8 of deception. On 6 September 2005 he was given a life sentence. Police doubt that they have discovered all the victims.
On 25 April 2007, the BBC reported that Robert Hendy-Freegard had appealed against his kidnapping convictions and won. This means that the life sentence is revoked but he will still serve nine years for the other offences.