Robert Hendy-Freegard was born on Robert Freegard, 1 March 1971 and is a British convicted conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent, from his early 20s through his 30s, while working as a barman and car salesman.
28 Facts About Robert Hendy-Freegard
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Robert Hendy-Freegard is known as David Hendy and David Clifton.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard met his victims on social occasions or as customers in the pub or car dealership where he worked.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard applied pressure and psychological stress to his victims, claiming they were threatened with assassination by the IRA, to coerce them into following his demands.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard seduced five women, claiming that he wanted to marry them.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard told Atkinson that he was an MI5 undercover agent who was investigating an IRA cell in the college.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard forced Atkinson to let himself be beaten up to prove his loyalty and to show that he was "hard enough".
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Robert Hendy-Freegard persuaded him to behave in a bizarre manner in college to prove his loyalty and to alienate him from friends.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard then told Atkinson his cover was blown and both of them had to go undercover.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard persuaded Atkinson to tell Smith, who at the time was Atkinson's girlfriend, and Hendy that he had liver cancer and persuaded them to accompany them in a "farewell tour" all over England.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard told them to sever all contact with their families because they were in danger just through being associated with him.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard told her to take up loans, supposedly to settle her debts following her divorce, and then made her sleep on park benches.
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In 1996, Robert Hendy-Freegard told a woman in Newcastle, Lesley Gardner, that he needed money to buy off IRA killers, who had been released after the Good Friday agreement.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard sold her car and again kept the money.
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In 2000, Robert Hendy-Freegard convinced a female company director, Renata Kister, that MI5 had told him to watch someone in the Sheffield car dealership where he was working and persuaded her to buy a better car.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard asked Kister for a room for Sarah Smith because she was supposedly in a witness protection programme.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard told her that Smith could not speak English, and told Smith that for security reasons she had to pretend that she could not understand anything said to her, so that the two women would not speak to each other.
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In 2000, Robert Hendy-Freegard met a lawyer, Caroline Cowper, who was a customer at a car dealership in Chiswick, West London.
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In 2002, Robert Hendy-Freegard seduced an American child psychologist, Kimberley Adams, with stories of how he had infiltrated a criminal network and killed a criminal who had threatened to expose him.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard said he wanted to marry her, on condition that she would become an agent and cut off the contact with her family.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard met the mother at Heathrow Airport where police apprehended him.
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On 25 April 2007, it was reported that Robert Hendy-Freegard had appealed against his kidnapping convictions.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard claimed to work in the media industry selling advertising space to large companies, and often hinted at the amount of money he had, convincing Sandra of his wealth with expensive gifts and trips.
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On 26 August 2022, a British man, who the French media identified as Robert Hendy-Freegard, caused severe injuries to two gendarmes in a hit-and-run after a Veterinary Health inspection of his dog breeding activities in Vidaillat, France.
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At his trial at a court in Gueret in 2025, Robert Hendy-Freegard was found guilty of the charge of 'violence against public officials with aggravating circumstances'.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard was sentenced to 6 years in prison in February 2025.
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The Spy Who Stole My Life, a television documentary about Robert Hendy-Freegard, was broadcast on Channel Five on 7 September 2005.
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Robert Hendy-Freegard was the subject of the January 2022 Netflix documentary mini-series The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman.