Are you familiar with the movie “Catch Me If You Can” or the story of Frank Abagnale? The movie was based on real events: Abagnale, between the ages of 15 and 21, became one of the most well-known con men of the 20th century, doing everything from bank fraud to impersonating an airline pilot and almost ended up on a world tour of prisons after he was arrested in France in 1969. Fifty years ago, provided you had the intelligence and skill, you could pull off that kind of stunt. Nowadays? Apparently it can still be done.
37 year old Stuart Howatson was sentenced to a two years in prison this week after pleading guilty to twelve charges of fraud and one charge of theft. Howatson’s ruse was simple enough: he claimed that he was the chief operations officer at Mercedes Benz’s Formula 1 team! He was able to make deals for security systems worth over $300,000, computer software deals worth over a quarter of a million dollars, and a $1.1 million web security system. Apparently, if you can convince someone that you work with Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes team, you get some killer perks! Though, to be fair, Howatson’s lawyer did point out that he wouldn’t have personally profited financially.
This isn’t Howatson’s first legal bind for this sort of thing either. In 2010 he was jailed for claiming he was a senior member of the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police and for scamming free board from a couple in Spain who were trying to sell a villa (Howatson claimed he had the funds to buy it). During his sentencing, which had to be delayed after Howatson attempted suicide, it was noted that the only reason that Howatson committed the frauds was to make himself “feel better and more powerful”.
Mercedes issued a statement following the conviction: “Mercedes-Benz GP Ltd has worked closely with Warwickshire Police on this matter and would like to thank them for their support in bringing it to a conclusion. Mr. Howatson fraudulently used the company name and wrongly declared himself to be an authorized person acting for the company. We regret the damage and trouble this behavior caused to third parties, in addition to how it impaired our own business. We are pleased that this matter has now been brought to a close.”
(Courtesy: Motorsport.com)
