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Yorkshire teenager poses as airline tycoon in new scam
A TEENAGE con artist who poses as a billionaire airline tycoon in a scam reminiscent of Hollywood blockbuster Catch Me If You Can has struck again.
Just months after staging an audacious confidence trick, Adam Barraclough, 17, from York, held a two-hour meeting with executives at a Manchester hotel in a bid to get their backing for an imaginary aviation business.
The teenager, whose scams have been compared with those of Leonardo DiCaprio's movie fraudster who was based on the real life of American fraudster Frank William Abagnale, Jr, used the pseudonym Dominic Edwards to meet public relations boss John Butters at the Manchester hotel and told him he was starting a new airline which would fly from the city to Jersey.
But Mr Butters said: "His story just didn't add up. He was very plausible, he knew his stuff and looked older than his age, but my experience in the aviation industry helped me smell a rat."
Barraclough approached business leaders in July claiming to be the boss of a huge holding company named AGG, which owned dozens of airlines plus stores such as Top Shop and JJB.
He also posed as a property developer and model agency boss, negotiating contracts with property firms and design agencies, and arranging photoshoots.The teenager even set up fake websites to support his fabricated business interests.
During meetings, Barraclough used the name Adam Tait and managed to convince bosses he was the chief of the fictitious business empire.
Security staff eventually saw through his ruse, however, and Barraclough was rumbled as he was preparing to board a chartered plane at Southend Airport. Essex Police were called in but decided no actual offences had been committed.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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