A Fawlty Guy

Lexi Finnigan 21 Sep 2015 A serial conman, who posed as an aristocrat in a Fawlty Towers-type scam, racked up bills of more than £10,000 in a string of luxury hotels, a court has heard. Alexander Wood, 33, talked his way into the London hotels by posing as the 12th Duke of Marlborough, Lord Jamie Spencer-Churchill. Self-styled ‘child prodigy’ Wood claimed to have checked into the Great Northern Hotel, near Kings Cross station, in May this year, because he was hiding from a ‘highly dangerous hitman’. In addition to the room cost of £1,878, he persuaded the hotel to lend him £100 a day and over the course of four nights, accumulated a bill of £2,278. Today, Southwark Crown Court heard how staff had not previously requested identification because they “believed he was a VIP and didn’t think it was appropriate to ask.” But suspicions were raised when Wood was seen treating people to drinks in the bar and when security staff confronted him, he tried to flee the hotel and was later arrested. While on bail, he continued to use other false names to con more hotels, spending £10,330 over six weeks. Great Northern Hotel Staff at the Great Northern Hotel became suspicious Photo: Alamy The hotels included the four star Radisson Blue hotels in South Kensington and Canary Wharf, the Grange Wellington in Victoria and the Mayfair Hotel on Stratton Street. He was arrested on 11 July as he checked into the Mayfair Hotel in the early hours of the morning. The scam is similar to an episode of the iconic 1970s comedy Fawlty Towers, which starred John Cleese as hotelier Basil Fawlty. The pilot episode, called ‘A Touch of Class’, follows Basil as he tried to raise the tone of the hotel when the aristocratic Lord Melbury comes to stay. Basil Fawlty, left, is taken in by 'Lord Melbury" in the first ever episode of Fawlty Towers Basil Fawlty, left, is taken in by 'Lord Melbury" in the first ever episode of Fawlty Towers Photo: BBC Melbury is later revealed as a confidence trickster who is pulling off a large fraud in the town. Today, Mr Wood saw his sentencing delayed as the judge said the case was ‘an embarrassing waste of public money’. The judge, Mr Recorder David Jeremy QC, said: “He said he was a child prodigy, an international violin soloist. “He said that he set up a highly successful business and a spat with an employee led to him being under threat of his life and led to the interaction with the police and the commission of these offences.” Prosecutor Beverley Akinbile said: “The defendant has entered a number of hotels and he has impersonated on one occasion the Duke of Marlborough and on other occasions he has purported to be an employee of British Airways. “He has been extended money at these hotels, in fact he ran up a number of bills at the hotels.”