Belgium extradites Brit conman over alleged police assaults

Belgium on Monday handed over to French authorities a British conman arrested in early September while on the run after attacking two police officers in France, a source close to the case told AFP.

Robert Hendy-Freegard, also known as David Hendy, “left the Brussels prison where he was incarcerated on Monday afternoon,” the source said.

He was to be handed over to the public prosecutor’s office in Limoges, where an investigation for attempted homicide was handed over to an investigating judge days after the attack on August 25.

Robert Hendy-Freegard is suspected of having knocked over two French police officers with his car on August 25 during an inspection of his dog farm.

When police asked him to go to the nearest police station, the suspect drove off and struck the officers.

The 51-year-old Briton, who fled after the attack, was arrested on September 2 in Grand-Bigard near Brussels.

He has challenged his extradition in Belgian courts but exhausted his right of appeal there.

Well-known in Britain, Robert Hendy-Freegard is the central figure in the documentary “The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman” and the fictional film “Rogue Agent”, both available on Netflix.

In 2005, he was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, deception and stealing from students and women, from whom he took more than a million pounds, posing as a spy for MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service.

He was freed in 2009 after his conviction for kidnapping was overturned by an appeals court.

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