A well-known fraudster who had served a four-year sentence in a British prison has now been given a six-year term in France for deliberately driving his car into two policemen in an attempt to avoid questioning.
Robert Hendy-Freegard, 53, had relocated to a rural part of central France, posing under a false identity to illegally breed beagles.
Local residents had harbored suspicions about him, which were reinforced after two Netflix documentaries shed light on his fraudulent schemes.
Hendy-Freegard had falsely presented himself as an MI5 agent to defraud women and students of £1m, but some of his convictions were overturned on appeal, leading to his early release after four years.
During his trial in Gueret, where he represented himself, he expressed remorse for his actions, stating, "I had enough. I panicked," and apologized to the gendarmes he had collided with in the village of Vidaillat near Clermont-Ferrand, explaining, "I didn't stop because I'm a human being with emotions."
The prosecution noted the bizarre nature of the incident, stating that the rural setting did not justify the chaotic scene that unfolded, likening it to a scene from "Mad Max."
One officer was knocked down, and another was thrown several meters against the car windshield.
Hendy-Freegard, also known as David Hendy, had his sentence reduced in the UK due to overturned charges of kidnapping.
Witnesses from his 2005 trial in the UK testified about enduring years of financial hardship due to his manipulative behavior. Coercive control became a criminal offense in 2015 in England and Wales.
After his release from prison in 2009, Hendy-Freegard relocated to France in 2015 to establish a beagle breeding business with his partner Sandra Clifton, arousing suspicions among neighbors that Clifton was under his influence.
Following the release of a documentary in 2022, concerned locals managed to contact Clifton's children, who sought help to locate her.
When authorities approached Hendy-Freegard for questioning about Clifton's whereabouts and the beagles, he tried to flee, hitting the officers and escaping to Belgium. However, he was extradited and has been in custody for over two years awaiting trial for the assault on the officers.
During the trial, Hendy-Freegard denied exerting coercive control over his partner and attributed the neighbors' concerns to the documentary.
The mayor of Vidaillat, Martine Laporte, expressed that the trial had revealed Hendy-Freegard's enduring manipulative tendencies and the necessity of preventing his potential reoffending, stating, "He really has to be stopped because if he gets out he'll start again and that's worrying," as reported by French media.