The Puppet Master: Inside Netflix's Hunt for a Master Conman

Netflix released The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman on January 18, 2022, offering viewers an unflinching look at one of Britain's most brazen confidence schemes. Directed by Sam Benstead and Gareth Johnson, the three-part series investigates the crimes of Robert Hendy-Freegard, a conman who weaponised psychological manipulation to exploit at least seven women and one man over more than twenty years.

Hendy-Freegard's con was audacious in its simplicity and cruelty. Beginning his criminal career in the early 1990s while working as a bartender and car salesman in Shropshire, England, he convinced victims that he was an undercover MI5 operative. One of his earliest known victims was Elizabeth Richardson, a coworker at a car dealership, whom he manipulated into giving him thousands of pounds.

The core of his manipulation lay in what he called "loyalty tests"—bizarre demands designed to isolate victims psychologically and financially. Hendy-Freegard forced some victims to sleep on park benches, ostensibly to test their commitment to his supposed intelligence operation. These degrading tasks served a dual purpose: they broke down victims' resistance while generating opportunities for further exploitation. Over the course of his crimes, Hendy-Freegard extracted nearly £1 million from his victims, leaving many in poverty.

The psychological dimension of his crimes distinguishes Hendy-Freegard from typical fraudsters. Rather than simple theft, his scheme operated on sustained deception and coercive control. Victims remained trapped in relationships of exploitation because they believed they were assisting a government agency—a belief Hendy-Freegard meticulously cultivated and reinforced.

Justice eventually caught up with the conman. In 2005, Hendy-Freegard was convicted on multiple serious charges: two counts of kidnapping, ten counts of theft, and eight counts of deception. He received a life sentence. However, the conviction would not hold. In 2007, his kidnapping convictions were overturned on appeal, and he was released from prison. As of the series' 2022 release, filmmakers stated they were unaware of his whereabouts.