Conman Posed as Duke to Scam Luxury Hotels

A London conman posed as the Duke of Marlborough to scam hotels out of large sums of money.

Alexander Wood, a 33-year-old man and serial conman, was recently found to be posing as the Duke of Marlborough in order to get stays at luxury hotels in London. Overall, he’s amassed unpaid bills of more than £10,000 ($15,200) from more than eight hotels, including the Great Northern Hotel, Southwark Crown Court and the Mayfair Hotel.

At the Great Northern Hotel, he ended up with an unpaid bill of £2,278 ($3,400) — £1,878 ($2,800) for the room and a £100 ($150) per day loan for four nights.

Staff at the Southwark did not check his identification because they thought he was a VIP; they didn’t want to offend him. But once he began to buy people drinks in the bar, security confronted him, and he ran. He was arrested and released on bail, where he continued to scam hotels out of money using fake names.

Posing as the duke, though, is not Wood’s first experience with cons. In August he pleaded guilty to two counts of crafting items for use in fraud and ten counts of fraud. He also owned up to skipping out without paying a hotel bill and not showing up to a scheduled court appointment. He had also been in jail previously for fraud.

Wood is currently in police custody until his hearing on October 23. Sentencing was recently delayed, and according to the judge on the case, it’s “an embarrassing waste of public money.”

[Photo: The Telegraph]