He applied pressure and psychological stress to his victims, claiming they were threatened with assassination by the IRA, to coerce them into following his demands.
[5] Having won his victims over, he coerced money out of them and pressured them to do his bidding, by asking them to: cut off contact with their family and friends; perform "loyalty tests"; and live alone in poor conditions.
[6] In 1992, while working in The Swan, a pub in Newport, Shropshire – and still with the unhyphenated name Freegard – he befriended two women, Sarah Smith and Maria Hendy, and a man, John Atkinson.
[7] In 1996, 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.
[6][7] In 2000, Hendy-Freegard met a lawyer, Caroline Cowper, who was a customer at a car dealership in Chiswick, West London.
He helped her 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.
[7] In 2002, Scotland Yard and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) organized a sting operation with the help of Kimberley Adams' parents.
[11] On 23 June 2005, after an eight-month trial, Blackfriars Crown Court convicted Hendy-Freegard on two counts of kidnapping (John Atkinson and Sarah Smith), 10 of theft and eight of deception.
[17] He 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.
[21] On 26 August 2022, a British man, who the French media identified as 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.
[22] On 2 September, after being on the run for eight days, he was apprehended by the Dilbeek police in Groot-Bijgaarden (near Brussels) following the issuance of a European Arrest Warrant.
[30] Hendy-Freegard was the subject of the January 2022 Netflix documentary mini-series The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman.
[31] In July 2022, Netflix UK streamed the feature film Rogue Agent, based on Hendy-Freegard's life.