Mark Acklom
Mark Acklom, a notorious con artist, manipulated Carolyn Woods, a divorced mother of two, into giving him her life savings by posing as a Swiss banker and MI6 agent. His fraudulent activities, which spanned multiple countries, started in South London when he committed his first major scam at the age of 16.
Victim: Carolyn Woods, 59 years old, a divorced mother of two.​
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Perpetrators: Mark Acklom, 50
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Date of incident: Most significant fraud involving Carolyn Woods occurred between January 2012 and December 2012.
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Location:
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Lambeth (where Acklom was born).
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Dulwich (Acklom secured a fraudulent mortgage on a property here).
​Key facts:
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Born in Lambeth, South London, in 1973, Mark Acklom was raised in a stable household.
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At 16, he stole his father's American Express card and committed a £1 million fraud by posing as a stockbroker.
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This scam included securing a £446,000 mortgage on a house in Dulwich and hiring a private jet.
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Acklom was sentenced to four years in a young offenders' institution for his first major crime in 1991, but continued his fraudulent activities after release.
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He posed as a wealthy businessman and investor in South London during the late 1980s and 1990s, committing further real estate and investment frauds.
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Acklom moved to Spain, where he conducted various small and large-scale frauds, including a €14 million real estate scam in 2008. He used the alias "Mark Long" and presented himself as the head of a real estate consortium.
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In 2012, Acklom targeted Carolyn Woods, posing as "Mark Conway," a Swiss banker and MI6 agent. He met her in Gloucestershire and quickly manipulated her into a romantic relationship.
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Acklom convinced Woods to give him her life savings for "property renovations" and promised to marry her, going as far as staging elaborate scenarios with fake MI6 agents and claiming to have a brain tumor.
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By the end of 2012, Woods had lost all her savings, and Acklom fled to Spain.
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Acklom was finally captured in 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland, after being spotted by a previous victim. He was extradited to the UK in 2019.
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He pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud by false representation related to Woods and was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.
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Despite ongoing legal efforts, Carolyn Woods has not received restitution for the money stolen from her. Acklom remains under surveillance following his release from Spanish prison in 2023.