Monday, October 26, 2009

Conman Paul Bint convicted of posing as top prosecutor Keir Starmer

Past convictions include cases where he had posed as other barristers, including QCs involved in the cases of Madeleine McCann, the Lockerbie bombing and the original murder trial of Jill Dando.

Bint carried off the charade using stolen barristers' wigs, gowns and wingtip collars, and kept a copy of the legal text, Archbold, with bundles of ribbon-bound documents.

In the latest case, the 47-year-old had boasted to a woman of being Mr Starmer and said he owned a fleet of luxury cars including one used in the James Bond film Goldeneye. He claimed that he had socialised with actor Pierce Brosnan, was friends with singer Robbie Williams and had once been married to British comedy actress Sarah Alexander.

When Bint became jealous of his victim’s affections for another man, he wrote abuse on the side of her home, then claimed his potential rival had repeatedly assaulted an ex-girlfriend and convinced her to dump him, the court heard.

Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, said by the time they realised who he was, Bint had misused a credit card belonging to one of them and stolen a valuable bracelet.

He denied wrongdoing but was found guilty of five counts committed between April 27 and May 5 this year. Two were for fraud by false representation - cheating a taxi driver of a £60 fare and using a credit card belonging to one of his women victims.

Another was for stealing a bracelet, burgling the robing room at St Alban's Crown Court and stealing a barrister's laptop, and test driving a £59,000 Audi R8 while disqualified.

Police know Bint by dozens of aliases - other identities he has adopted include that of a wealthy hotelier, aristocrat, ballet dancer, banker, doctor, playboy, police officer and property magnate.

One barrister has in the past accused him of making "Walter Mitty look like a nine o'clock news reader".

In total, the fraudster has been convicted of 155 offences and asked for nearly 350 others to be taken into consideration.

At 21, he toured hospital wards in north-west England, pretending to be a doctor, by arranging X-rays, putting stitches into a patient's head, authorising blood transfusions and dispensing drugs. In Leeds he attended to a 17-year-old car crash victim and told her parents she would be fine. She died six hours later.

Later he moved on to elaborate car scams, and then to posing as a barrister. In 2002, he was admitted to hospital claiming to be suffering the after effects of a crash in his Aston Martin and pretended to be Orlando Pownall QC, the prosecutor in the Jill Dando murder trial. The doctor treating Bint was totally taken in and allowed him to stay at her home, from where he fled with £60 cash and her gold credit card.

In April last year, Harrow Crown Court was told how he claimed to be Jonathan Reece QC, won the sympathy of a train passenger and then betrayed their kindness.

Two months later he was at Guildford Crown Court where he was jailed for 12 months after once more using the barrister's persona to borrow a woman's car and trying to fill it up using her credit card details.

Bint has been diagnosed with a psychopathic condition, but cannot be admitted to hospital because the condition is untreatable. He has been remanded him in custody until November 3 for sentence.

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