Conman Robert Hendy-Freegard, the star of Netflix’s chilling true crime documentary The Puppet Master, is on the run in France after allegedly trying to run over a police officer.
Judicial sources say Hendy-Freegard deliberately drove into an officer while fleeing his hideaway in Vidaillat, a rural French town.
Two law enforcement officials visited Hendy-Freegard’s home on Thursday (25 August), which is when he allegedly accelerated his Audi A3 in their direction.
Hendy-Freegard’s alleged actions left one officer with ‘serious facial wounds’ and ‘multiple fractures’.
The cop remains in hospital, while the other officer sustained less serious injuries.
As of Friday (26 August) afternoon, a large-scale police operation was underway in a bid to track down Hendy-Freegard.
A Gendarmerie (French armed forces) spokesman confirmed: "All the soldiers of the department have been deployed as well as a helicopter from the gendarmerie to try to find this person.”
Police have also warned anyone who spots Hendy-Freegard to call law enforcement and approach the individual with care.
LADbible has reached out to the National Gendarmerie for comment.
As is explained in Netflix’s documentary, Hendy-Freegard was convicted in 2005 for stealing almost £1 million from at least seven women and one man.
He worked at a pub in Shropshire and a car dealership, where he would meet and convince victims he was an undercover MI5 agent, Special Branch or part of Scotland Yard working against the IRA.
Hendy-Freegard fleeced thousands of pounds from people by convincing them they were being pursued by the IRA - winning them over by cutting them off from their family and friends.
In 2002, Scotland Yard and the FBI organised a sting operation and arrested Hendy-Freegard at Heathrow Airport.
Following an eight-month trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in 2005, the con artist was convicted for two counts of kidnapping, ten of theft and eight of deception.
Hendy-Freegard was given a life sentence, but this was revoked after an appeal against his kidnapping convictions in 2007, and he was released from prison in 2009.
In 2012, it was reported that a single mother-of-two Sandra Clifton, met a man on a dating app called ‘David Hendy’, who claimed to work in the media.
‘David’ started to become controlling, and tried to alienate Clifton’s family, even forcing her children to move out.
The pair disappeared two years later, but Clifton was found and questioned by police officers in 2015. The woman notified the police that she was aware of ‘David’s’ true identity and wanted to stay with him anyway.
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