FAKE DOCTOR AND SELF-STYLED LORD JAILED FOR FRAUD

Darren Anderson, who falsely claimed to be a doctor and a Lord, has been jailed for four years at Nottingham Crown Court after an investigation by the Insolvency Service. Anderson, of Bassingfield Lane, Gamston, Nottingham, used names including Lord Timothy Ahlbeck and the 18th Duke of Ahlbeck, and acted as a director of five companies while disqualified from doing so, purportedly trading as travel agencies, estate agents and hairdressers. His offences during 2022 and 2023 left businesses and individuals more than £200,000 out of pocket through unauthorised direct debit payments, unpaid invoices and rent arrears. He was also disqualified as a company director for a further 15 years, and the court activated a suspended sentence imposed in 2021. The Insolvency Service said it is now seeking to confiscate his fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Anderson's sentence covered fraud, theft and acting as a company director while disqualified, with the theft charge brought separately by Derbyshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. The court heard he had seven previous convictions for 41 dishonesty offences dating back to 2002, and had used several aliases over 15 years to continue offending. In 2011 he was jailed for fraud and banned as a company director for the maximum 15-year term under the name Miles Prestland-Windsor. He appeared in court again in 2021 as Timothy Ahlbeck, receiving a suspended sentence for fraud and breaching his director disqualification, and was once more banned for 15 years.

David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said Anderson "was a doctor only in his own mind." The Insolvency Service and police forces, including Derbyshire Police, worked together on the investigations that led to the conviction. The confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 are ongoing, according to the Insolvency Service.