The Spy Who Conned Me

In 2005 Robert Freegard was sentenced to life in prison for crimes that dated back over a decade. In 1992 he took a job in a small rural pub used by students from Harper Adams college and his natural charisma and energy made the place much livelier. A small group fall in with Robert and are intrigued by him and become even more so when he tells them that he is a MI5 agent working to expose an IRA cell. Robert asks one of them, John, to do unusual things like start fights, say he was gay etc to draw attention and allow Robert to work unnoticed. John brings some friends on board and soon Robert tells them that an IRA hits squad has been sent for them and they must flee. He puts them in a MI5 safe house, getting them jobs and taking their cash, keeping them on edge and under his control. And so they became the first people to fall under his spell and lose years of their lives and thousands of pounds of their money to Freegard.

When this story came to light in the press a year ago or so the initial reaction of most people was to laugh or perhaps to mock those who got duped by someone pretending to be a spy. Of course this does not do any justice to the truth behind the case, the lives that were lost to the charismatic and controlling Freegard. The film allows the victims to the relate what they went though and why they had fallen for the lies and the stories. While this film doesn't manage to convey quite why Freegard was able to get away with it or help us understand why this failed carpenter hooked so many victims, it does manage to present the facts in an amazing and clear manner. The victims talk through their experiences in honest and brutal ways and it is hard not to watch the film with your mouth occasionally open.

Of course the failure to convey why so many fell for this man mean that at times it is hard to accept what they did as not being partly their fault for being guilible. Understandably perhaps, the film doesn't put any such pressure onto the victims but lets it all be about the actions rather than the motives. Similarly, the film gets no access to Freegard himself and as such never gets to grips with why he did what he did; there are some theories and history put forward but it is a big ask to make them suffice.

Despite this though the story is fascinating enough to easily carry the film and make it well worth a look. Hardly fun to watch but one that is well worth seeing simply because the facts are so unbelievable and engaging even if the motives and reasons are not that well explored.