BRITAIN: A former barman who for 10 years posed as a British spy and brainwashed his victims into funding his luxury lifestyle was jailed for life yesterday for kidnap and theft.
Robert Hendy-Freegard (34) was found guilty in June of conning hundreds of thousands of pounds out of at least seven victims.
In 1993 Hendy-Freegard convinced three students, two women and a man, he was an undercover Special Branch officer infiltrating an IRA cell at their agricultural college in Shropshire.
All three left the college after he told them he had disturbed the terrorists making a bomb and they had to go on the run to avoid the IRA killing them.
Police say that Hendy-Freegard extracted more than £500,000 (€735,000) over 10 years from the students' families after he told the students they had to fund a witness protection scheme.
Police say he also swindled at least four other people.
Hendy-Freegard was arrested in 2003 at Heathrow Airport in a sting operation.