A SERIAL fantasist who claimed to be a doctor and a lord has been jailed after setting up fake companies in a £200k fraud scheme.
Darren Anderson set up 13 fraudulent companies between 2022 and 2023 – leaving a number of businesses out of pocket.
The 43-year-old falsely styled himself Lord Timothy Ahlbeck and the 18th Duke of Ahlbeck.
He was the director of some five companies and stole from properties that he had rented.
Anderson was jailed for four years after admitting 16 offences at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.
When he was confronted outside court by reporters Anderson put on headphones and refused to answer any questions.
During his string of offending Anderson made 106 unauthorised direct debit payments using another company’s bank account.
He also took out a five-year lease on a hair salon in before walking away mid way through the agreement and failing to pay 57 months of rent.
Christine Garcia was hired by Anderson as a salon manager at the site, but he went on to sack her via text message, the court heard.
Garcia told how she was “traumatised” and felt “embarrassed that I’ve been duped by this individual.”
Anderson also signed two contracts worth thousands with media organisations.
He reached an agreement with newspaper company Newsquest Media Group before defaulting on payments.
Anderson then approached a property investment company and said he wanted to buy groups of flats in and rent a cottage in the Peak District.
He offered up fake proof of payment and moved into the cottage but paid no rent.
When he was evicted Anderson left the property “uninhabitable” and stole a garden chair, curtains and heaters.
Described as a “fantasist” Anderson also submitted false accounts to claiming he had several fake employees who he invented identities for.
Anderson was born Timothy Skelding and was previously convicted of fraud offences in 2011 and 2015.
At the time, he was given a 15-year company director ban under the fake name Miles Prestland-Windsor.
In 2021 he was given a suspended sentence for fraud and breaching his disqualification.
He was once again banned from running companies for 15 years but continued to commit fraud.
Anderson set up travel agencies, estate agents, pet companies, hair salons, a clothing firm and a paralegal firm.
If issues came up with his companies he would threaten legal action with his paralegal business and adopt “threatening tactics.”
David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said after sentencing: “He is a compulsive fraudster who should never have been acting as a company director while he carried out his latest spree.
“Behind his existence as a Walter Mitty character is a man who showed pure contempt for the insolvency system and his creditors.
“Through his various identities, he disguised his offending on an industrial scale, giving no consideration whatsoever to the trail of destruction he left in his wake.
“His repeated use of companies as a vehicle to commit fraud is something the Insolvency Service will not tolerate.
“We hope his time behind bars gives him the opportunity to finally reflect on his actions and to come out of a reformed man.”
