A British fraudster who pretended to be quadriplegic and sometimes comatose for two years to avoid prosecution has been convicted after police caught him on camera driving and walking.
Alan Knight of Swansea, Wales, is accused of stealing more than £40,000 (US$64,000) from the bank account of a neighbor with Alzheimer’s disease, prosecutors said.
When police began investigating, the 47-year-old Knight said he was quadriplegic and so sick that he sometimes fell into a coma. He checked into a hospital to avoid court appearances, saying he was having seizures, police allege.
The South Wales Evening Post reported on Wednesday that the suspect’s wife, Helen Knight, had written to the newspaper saying that her husband had obtained a doctor’s letter certifying he was “quadriplegic and in a comatose condition, bed-bound at home” after a neck injury.
“We’ve been through absolute hell and we’re still going through hell,” the paper said she wrote.
Knight’s deceit was uncovered when police tracked the use of his supermarket card and produced surveillance camera footage of him walking and driving.
Told that the trial would go ahead regardless of his presence, Knight arrived at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday in a wheelchair and neck brace. Faced with the evidence, he pleaded guilty to 19 counts of forgery, fraud and theft.
Judge Paul Thomas said Knight was “a very accomplished and determined actor ... and the conditions he claims to be suffering from are simply nonexistent.”
Knight is to be sentenced on Nov. 7.
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