British scammer 'on the run in France for alleged attempted murder of cop'

Forensic sources confirmed on Friday that Robert Hendy-Freegard, 51, deliberately rammed the officer as he escaped from his hiding place in the rural town of Vidaillat in France Robert Hendy-Freegard is today on the run in France after the alleged attempted murder of a policeman (

Image: PA)

A British anti-hero who appears in Netflix's hit documentary series Ultimate Conman is on the run in France today after the alleged attempted murder of a police officer.

Legal sources confirmed on Friday that Robert Hendy-Freegard, 51, deliberately rammed the officer as he escaped from his hiding place in the rural town of Vidaillat, east of Clermont-Ferrand.

Two constables had circled the property on Thursday, and Hendy-Freegard reacted by speeding his Audi A3 towards them.

One officer suffered serious facial injuries, including "multiple broken bones", and is still hospitalized, while the other was treated for less serious injuries.

A judicial source said: "An investigation has been opened into the attempted assassination of a person holding public authority. The person responsible is wanted."

Robert was jailed for life after being found guilty at an earlier eight-month trial of 20 misdemeanors of theft, deception and "fraudulent kidnapping" between 1993 and 2003 (

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Officers had originally arrived to check on a Beagle breeding business that Hendy-Freegard ran with her partner, 49-year-old Sandra Clifton.

Hendy-Freegard was imprisoned for fraud in 2005 after posing as an MI5 agent to convince eight people they were targets of IRA terrorists.

He said they had to cut themselves off from family and friends, while paying him cash.

Hendy-Freegard defrauded his victims out of at least £1million, according to court evidence, and was initially convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life imprisonment.

But that was later reversed, and by 2009 he was released from prison, becoming the anti-hero of Netflix's hit series The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman.

On Friday afternoon in France, a large-scale police operation was launched to try to find the fugitive...