A SERIAL fraudster dubbed a “Walter Mitty character” by a judge is back in business and claiming to run a “global” security company, with clients including a well-known music star.
FullProof Intelligence claims to advertise on F1 cars, to do business with the Saudi royal family and to have negotiated the return of a woman kidnapped while travelling to South America.
In fact, it is run by Mark Hill-Wood, a criminal fantasist from Croydon with more than 50 convictions, whose victims include Olympic athletes and Harrods.
Last April, under the name Phillip Buffett, he was handed a two-year suspended sentence after admitting numerous offences, including conning Harrods out of a £200,000 watch.
He also pleaded guilty to breaching a seven-year ban on holding a directorship, imposed in 2011 after being convicted, this time using the name Mark Cas, of conning elite athletes with the promise of lucrative sponsorship contracts in the build-up to the London Olympics.
When approached by the Advertiser this week, Mr Hill-Wood admitted circumventing that ban by operating FullProof Intelligence as a sole trader.
“I’m not a director of any limited company, but a sole trader, so I am in contravention of no court order,” he said.
FullProof Intelligence’s website makes numerous bold claims about being a “global intelligence agency” and its “years spent operating in domestic & international intelligence services”.
It says the business, which has a postal box address, has a £5m deal to provide cyber security for Saudi royalty and is looking to fill a number of well-paid positions on six-figure salaries.
The website includes testimonials from anonymous clients, such as a Magic Circle lawyer, and claims the company provides “protection and security 24/7 to a well-known singer on her worldwide tour”. It also lists a wealthy family as one of its customers.
“We gave urgent assistance to a high-net-worth family whose daughter was kidnapped whilst travelling in South America,” reads the website.
“We launched a full-scale manhunt, located her whereabouts, and negotiated skilfully and intelligently with her captors. We ensured her safe return within a fortnight.”
Fullproof’s website says it employs a team of intelligence consultants heading various “divisions” of its business including fraud, money-laundering and forensic accounting. Francois Lefebvre, who shares his name with a Napoleonic military commander, is listed as the Head of Stolen Art Recovery Division.
It also features videos purporting to show Fullproof’s impressive advertising campaigns. In one, the company’s logo can be seen on the side of a Mercedes F1 car and, in another, its branding is on a passenger jet.
A video on the company’s YouTube channel shows an advert on the side of a helicopter and claims Mr Hill-Wood has a full pilot’s licence. The aircraft’s registration number reveals it to be an air ambulance based in the US. As with other videos, the branding appears to have been digitally edited into the recording.
Fullproof Intelligence also claims to be accredited by a number of official bodies. Its website features logos of five organisations including the United Nations and ADS, the aerospace and defence group which runs the Farnborough International Airshow.
When the Advertiser contacted ADS this week, a spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that Fullproof Intelligence is not a member of ADS and we have never done business with them.
“We will be contacting the company and ask them to immediately remove our logo from their website, as they have no right to use it.”
Mr Hill-Wood has since deleted reference to ADS from the site despite insisting he had permission from “several” companies to use their logos. He declined to answer when asked to identify them.
He also failed to respond when we asked for proof that the “specialists” listed on the site were real people or whether he had edited the advertising videos.
Mr Hill-Wood claims to be “senior assistant” at the FullProof Foundation, which is offering a community group £8m and promises the person who nominates them a £10,000 shopping trip.
The conman, who used to live in Thornton Heath and Croydon town centre before moving to Thames Ditton, would not comment on the foundation or respond when quizzed as to whether he had written the comments posted under his blog.
What he would say was that the Advertiser was “harassing” him, adding: “Please do not bother me again.”
UPDATE: It would appear that, on at least three occasions, Mr Hill-Wood used a service on http://www.peopleperhour.com which charged £50 to put company logos on things such as London buses, helicopters and passenger jets. He also paid £18 for ‘200 real endorsements on his LinkedIn’ page and twice paid £7 for ‘3,000 real YouTube views’ .
Fullproof Intelligence bears the hallmarks of Mark Hill-Wood’s former business ventures.
In July 2009, then calling himself Mark Cas, he set up Global Sponsorship Group in Croydon, and created a website claiming the company had a sponsorship portfolio of £35 million as well as the backing of FTSE 100 companies who wanted to sponsor athletes.
Through the website, Cas claimed to be able to match sportspeople with sponsorship deals if they paid an initial fee of £500 per individual and £1,000 for teams.
A number of athletes, including an Olympic gold medallist, signed up but none of them received the deals he promised. The police investigated and found he had no connection to any of the companies listed on his website.
He later admitted seven counts of fraud by false representation and was convicted of a further two counts. He was sentenced to three years in prison and disqualified from becoming a company director for seven years.
Mark Hill-Wood has changed his name since being convicted last April of defrauding Harrods out of a £200,000 watch.
The conman, then called Phillip Buffett, used a cheque from a closed bank account to leave the Knightsbridge store with a £216,000 Hublot, another watch, a camera and clothing worth a further £28,000.
He admitted seven counts of fraud against businesses and individuals totalling another £119,000, as well as breaching a ban on being a company director. Buffett later used the watch to get a loan of £77,000 and, the following month, flew to Monaco to watch the Formula One Grand Prix. He was arrested at Gatwick when he returned.
He cheated companies out of goods and services and defrauded freelances he had employed to work for his business, Uber Intelligence, on a short-term basis. It is thought his victims are still owed more than £150,000.
He was able to get around the directorship prohibition by changing his name by deed poll.
Judge Simon Oliver said: “I’ve got a psychologist’s report on you and it talks about you as a man who thinks it may be important to be perceived as important, successful and wealthy.
“Your behaviour has all the hallmarks of a Walter Mitty character.
“In the fantasy world in which you live you think you are rich, you think you are successful.
“You are neither rich nor successful. Your 48 [previous] convictions show me you are completely unsuccessful in all that you do.”
Buffett, then living in Fairfield Road, Croydon, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence, and 200 hours of community work.
Career conman Mark Hill-Wood was accused of cheating the ex-wife of a bankrupt tycoon found dead on railings outside his London home.
Posing as a private investigator, he approached Michelle Young and offered to find her former husband Scot Young’s missing fortune.
Mr Young died after falling four storeys on to railings outside his penthouse flat in London on December 8 last year. According to a national newspaper, Ms Young handed over £14,000 to Mr Hill-Wood in hope of finding her husband’s money and securing a £20 million divorce settlement. She refused a request for extra money when the fraudster did not provide the information he claimed to have collected.
Mr Hill-Wood was arrested and later bailed on suspicion of fraud by detectives in Surrey.
He told the Advertiser this week that he had refunded Ms Young prior to speaking to the police.
Read more: http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/F1-cars-Saudi-royalty-hostage-negotiation-serial/story-26200485-detail/story.html#ixzz3jRqLYRyw
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