Fraudster who posed as aristocrat jailed for luxury hotel scam

Alexander Wood claims he ran up thousands of pound bills in five-star hotels to take refuge from associates of a criminal

Alexander Wood admitted 13 counts of fraud by false representation

A fraudster who posed as an aristocrat and VIP to stay in a series of exclusive hotels and run up bills worth thousands of pounds has been jailed.

Alexander Wood, 34, claimed he stayed in the five-star establishments across London to take refuge from associates of a criminal who had threatened his life.

Wood, of Southend, Essex, pretended to be a British Airways VIP to stay at luxury hotels including Claridge’s in Mayfair, the Grange Wellington in Victoria, and Radisson Blu hotels in Canary Wharf and South Kensington.

He even checked in to the Great Northern hotel in King’s Cross under the name of Lord Jamie Spencer-Churchill, the 12th Duke of Marlborough and a distant relative of Winston Churchill.

Wood cheated the hotels out of around £12,000, paying some with cheques which bounced and walking out of one without settling his bill.

Wood claimed he was hiding from a former employee – an escaped convict – who was making death threats against him and his family. He told Southwark Crown Court he believed five-star hotels could afford to lose out on a few hundred pounds.

But judge Alistair McCreath dismissed the scam as “simple greed” and jailed Wood for three-and-a-half years.

The businessman – who has previously served three years in prison for a similar offence – admitted 13 counts of fraud by false representation.

The court heard that he booked in to Claridge’s hotel in Mayfair in February this year, racking up a hotel bill of £1,788 in three days but avoiding paying because of problems with cheques and transfers. In May, a room was booked for four nights at the Great Northern Hotel under the name Lord Jamie Spencer-Churchill by someone purporting to be his personal assistant. The man did not offer any identification and staff did not press him on it.

Detective Constable Keeley Pemberton, who investigated the case, said: “This was an audacious and brazen string of offences.”

Press Association