Real-life ‘Water Mitty’ who posed as doctor and lord in £200k fraud scam jailed

Real-life ‘Water Mitty’ who posed as doctor and lord in £200k fraud scam jailed The fraudster claimed to have traded as everything from travel agencies to estate agents and hairdressers - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in A real-life ‘Walter Mitty’ character who falsely claimed to be a doctor and a Lord, as well as set up a number of fake companies, has been jailed. Darren Anderson’s string of offences across 2022 and 2023 caused losses of more than £200,000 to other businesses and individuals through unauthorised direct debit payments, unpaid invoices and rent arrears. The 43-year-old, who went by names such as Lord Timothy Ahlbeck and the 18th Duke of Ahlbeck, was also a director of five companies while banned, which he claimed traded as everything from travel agencies to estate agents and hairdressers. Anderson, of Bassingfield Lane, Gamston, Nottingham, was jailed for four years at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday 24 September. He was also disqualified as a company director again for 15 years. The sentence included one count of theft in separate proceedings brought by Derbyshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, as well as the activation of a suspended sentence imposed in 2021. The Insolvency Service is also seeking to confiscate the funds Anderson fraudulently obtained under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Anderson’s criminality was enabled using several aliases over the last 15 years. The court also heard he had seven previous convictions for 41 dishonesty offences since 2002, highlighting a long-standing pattern of fraud and deception. He was jailed for fraud and banned as a company director for the maximum period of 15 years in 2011 under the name Miles Prestland-Windsor. Anderson has appeared in court since then, most recently in 2021 as Timothy Ahlbeck, when he was handed a suspended sentence for fraud and breaching his director disqualification following investigations by the Insolvency Service. He was again banned as a company director for 15 years. David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Darren Anderson was a doctor only in his own mind. He is a compulsive fraudster who should never have been acting as a company director while he carried out his latest crime spree. “Behind his existence as a Walter Mitty character is a man who showed pure contempt for the insolvency system and his creditors. “Through his various identities, he disguised his offending on an industrial scale, giving no consideration whatsoever to the trail of destruction he left in his wake. His repeated misuse of companies to facilitate fraud and cause losses to creditors bears many of the hallmarks of abusive phoenixism and is something the Insolvency Service will not tolerate. “We hope his time behind bars gives him the opportunity to finally reflect on his actions and to come out of prison a reformed man. Chief inspector Anna Woodhouse, of Derbyshire Police, said: “Darren Anderson was brazen in his theft of items from the property he had rented in Derbyshire - with the exact items stolen found furnishing his new home when officers arrested him. “The cost of replacing these items ran into the thousands of pounds and it is clear that this was an extension of the dishonest manner that Anderson led his life. “I hope that today’s sentence prompts Anderson to change his ways - and acts as a warning to others who may encounter him in the future to be on their guard should he not change his ways.” [Image text:] 182 AIR 1100