Mestres da Enganação

I watched this docu-series on con-man Robert Freegard not long after watching a similar exposé on the playboy fraudster Simon Leviev and of course there are both a factual and dramatic series on Anna Delvey also out there at present. It seems it's TV open-season on large-scale tricksters like these and I certainly find them fascinating. The sad thing about this one is that, as the title implies, the perpetrator here, after being caught and freed once hasn't yet been rediscovered, never mind caught again.

I'll call him Freegard although other pseudonyms are available and a nasty piece of work he seems to be. His M. O. seems to see him claim to be in MI5 and use this phony establishment status to coerce his victims into slavishly doing what he wants as well as extorting every last penny he can from them and their families along the way.

Although principally running two parallel story-lines, one present day, the other back in the early 90's, the narrative also draws in two other victims of this "puppet-master" to further bolster the story.

Story one concerns a young male student based in Ireland, who bumps into a young barman who tells him a fantastical tale about him being a British secret-service recruit against the then active I. R. A. So he convinces his prey, plus his then girlfriend and another young girl companion to go with him on a seemingly never-ending road-trip ostensibly to keep them safe from harm as the IRA apparently has a death-threat against the three of them. They return to England but stay on the run, stopping off at dingy "safe-houses" along the way. Astonishingly, this goes on for nine years with the three young people completely convinced of their imminent danger. But this protection comes at a price and soon he's forcing his hostages to go back to their families and get as much money out of them as they can ostensibly for his expenses, to be paid of course, straight back to Freegard.

The programme fast-forwards some fifteen years or so to a simpler but no less bizarrely compelling tale of a handsome stranger preying on a single mother, effectively cuckooing the woman's two children out of the family home and again making her accompany him on a non-stop tour of Europe. The show then shuttles between both stories showing the strenuous efforts of their respective families to rescue the brainwashed victims, as well as the debilitating psychological effect on them all.

We learn that Freegard (what an ironic name that is!) was once a successful car-salesman but even that seems insufficient to explain how he is so successful at controlling and using people. Two other victims are brought forward and with the police's help, a sting is carried out on Freegard which brings him finally to justice and given a life sentence only to see him get off on a technicality, leaving him free to go after his current victim, where, sad to relate, he apparently is working his black magic again preventing the poor woman from seeing her two distraught children.

The show uses actors to speak for some of the key players which I found a little distracting and I also found the time-switch presentation a bit frustrating at times. Nevertheless this was a remarkable, almost unbelievable story, powerfully told. Yes, we the viewer might wonder at the duplicity of the various victims here but I guess it's true what they say that the devil doesn't always appear with a cloven hoof and pointy tail.

A number of reviews have suggested this documentary is "suspect" without explaining why. Probably because this is indeed an accurate real-life account that so beggars belief it almost sounds UNreal.

In my opinion the makers of this documentary have created a 2-hour masterpiece of fascinating and memorable viewing. At times I literally gasped in shock, in surprise, in genuine incredulity that such downright evil people actually do exist and that seemingly intelligent victims could be convinced into such extreme situations.

But the documentary treats all the people involved - victims, their siblings, their parents - with the lightest of touches. There's no third party narrative, every word comes from someone affected by this despicable man or from the security forces who finally caught him. It's perfectly paced, and while the timeline is somewhat jumpy it does add dramatic effect because the viewer becomes involved in the puzzle and you yourself start to piece together the story.

I won't say I enjoyed this, because that sounds.. almost trite. I'm hugely glad I did watch it, is a more true statement. I can't remember feeling such growing affinity and sympathy for true-life victims who have had the courage, the fortitude to bare their souls and re-live YEARS of horrendous abuse and utter helplessness to the rest of the world, and for their families who suffered such heartache yet never gave up. Nor can I recall feeling such antipathy, such despisal for Robert Hendy-Freegard, this arrogant, contemptible sociopath who remains at large in the world.

Delicately and empathetically executed, properly-paced, and will leave you with mixed feelings. Completely worth two hours of your time.

I see a lot of reviews here talking about how crazy it is to this to think or discover that this man is who he is.. I study criminal psychology and I can tell you not only has he done this before, but given a chance he'd do it again.

Never ever underestimate anyone anyone. Learn the signs and learn to profile.

I watched the original BBC documentary a while back. That was 1hr long and fit in a lot more crazy facts than this one.

No mention of his secret spy wristwatch, or his what seemed like genuine access to secret government information. Plenty more.

I'd have thought Netflix would use the broader canvas to cover all that and more. No.

This was, for me, like watching a film after finishing the book. The original really was fascinating stuff, this just sounds like another cheap con job.

The series does a great job of showing the damage a conman does by interviewing the relatives of the women he has taken away from them. It is heartbreaking to hear children talk about being abandoned by their mother, and to hear a dad say, "Then I knew it was about the money," (I would have given anything to have Peter Smith for my dad.)

That said, when the conman's preposterous lies are revealed, it's really hard to see how those women could have been that naive. Or, maybe, a better way to say this is that it's hard to understand how a conman knows how to find the women when they are both deeply vulnerable and have money. A conman is a psychopath. A conman who gets a Netflix series is a conman who is a psychopath with good hunting skills.

Always do a background check, and never lend money, folks.

The series isn't perfect, but it's short, always remembers the victims and won't waste your time,