A "compulsive fraudster" who falsely claimed to be a lord and a doctor and set up a number of fake companies has been jailed.

Darren Anderson, from Gamston in Nottinghamshire, set up 13 fraudulent companies between 2022 and 2023, leaving businesses and individuals more than £200,000 out of pocket.

The 43-year-old, who went by names such as Lord Timothy Ahlbeck and the 18th Duke of Ahlbeck, was also the director of five companies while banned and stole from properties he had rented.

On Thursday at Nottingham Crown Court, Anderson, of Bassingfield Lane, was jailed for four years after admitting 16 offences.

Anderson pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud, five counts of acting as a director of a company while disqualified and to one count of theft in November last year.

His barrister Chris Jeyes said one of Anderson's many identities was a "Walter Mitty" character - a fictional character from a short story published in 1939, who was a compulsive daydreamer of elaborate fantasies.

In his latest spree of offences, he made 106 unauthorised direct debit payments, worth about £79,000, using another company's bank account to pay for various services, such as storage facilities and advertising.

He also took out a five-year lease on a hair salon in Ebbw Vale in South Wales in July 2022.

However, by October, he had stopped attending the salon and walked away having failed to pay the 57 months of remaining rent, causing losses of more than £61,000.

Christine Garcia was hired by Anderson as a salon manager. He sacked her via text message, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement, Garcia said she had been "traumatised" and felt "embarrassed that I've been duped by this individual".

By January 2023 Anderson had signed contracts worth thousands with media organisations - including newspaper company Newsquest Media Group - which he had contacted about advertising but then defaulted on payments.

Five months later he approached a property investment company, claiming he wanted to buy groups of apartments in Scotland and rent a cottage in the Peak District.

When he was evicted from the property, Anderson left it "uninhabitable" and stole furnishings, including a garden chair, curtains, heaters.

The "fantasist" also submitted false accounts to Companies House, claiming he had travel companies with several employees for whom he invented fake identities.

Born Timothy Skelding, he started offending from the age of 19 and his offending "had been persistent throughout the years", Judge Robert Egbuna said as he sentenced him on Thursday.

Anderson was previously convicted of fraud offences in 2011 and 2015, and on both occasions was given a 15-year company director ban under the pseudonym Miles Prestland-Windsor.

He appeared in court in Exeter again in 2021, this time as Timothy Ahlbeck, and was given a suspended sentence for fraud and breaching his disqualification.

He was banned from running companies again on that occasion for another 15 years, but continued to offend.

The fraudulent companies Anderson set up included travel agencies, estate agents, pet companies, hair salons, a clothing firm and a paralegal firm.

When problems arose, such as those with payments, Anderson adopted "threatening tactics" and would threaten litigation through West Midlands Paralegals - one if his fake firms, the court heard.

David Snasdell, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said after sentencing: "He is a compulsive fraudster who should never have been acting as a company director while he carried out his latest crime spree.

"Behind his existence as a Walter Mitty character is a man who showed pure contempt for the insolvency system and his creditors.

"Through his various identities, he disguised his offending on an industrial scale, giving no consideration whatsoever to the trail of destruction he left in his wake.

"His repeated use of companies as a vehicle to commit fraud is something the Insolvency Service will not tolerate.

"We hope his time behind bars gives him the opportunity to finally reflect on his actions and to come out of prison a reformed man."

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