A FANTASIST posed as a Formula One racing chief to run up hundreds of pounds worth of bills at hotels in Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
Convicted conman Stuart Howatson also used the same false identity in arrangements to purchase computer software and systems costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Howatson, of Fisher Road, Bishops Itchington, had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to a total of 12 charges of fraud and one of theft.
Nine related to 37 year-old Howatson posing as the chief operations officer with the Mercedes Benz F1 racing team to obtain £2,785 worth of accommodation and food at hotels in Leamington, Kidderminster and Bewdley between January and June 2014.
He also stole £1,500 from a man he had met, again after posing as the F1 team’s officer.
And in three further frauds committed between May and December 2014, by claiming to be the chief operations officer with the Mercedes Benz team he obtained computer security systems worth £224,408 and computer software systems costing 23,904 euros, as well as agreeing to purchase $1.1million worth of computer web security systems.
But on the day he was due to be sentenced Howatson failed to attend, despite having turned up the previous day when the case had to be adjourned because of a lack of court time to deal with it.
His solicitor Nick Devine explained Howatson had been admitted to hospital – apparently feeling suicidal.
Adjourning the case for more information to be obtained, Judge Alan Parker commented: “My provisional view, knowing what I now know about him, is that he’s just engaging in a process of trying to avoid the outcome.”
Howatson had been described as ‘a common trickster and a conman’ by a judge at Hereford Crown Court who jailed him in 2010 for conning a couple into letting him stay at their villa in Spain on the pretence he had the funds to purchase it.
During that hearing it emerged he had convinced friends and family, including his wife, that he was a Metropolitan Police officer who had served in the Royal Protection Squad.
He even had a place at his wedding reception for the former Met chief constable Sir John Stevens – only to then tell guests Sir John had been unable to attend for security reasons.
Judge Parker adjourned the current case for a week for Howatson to attend, adding he would not issue a warrant for his arrest, but required him to attend for the next hearing.
