Take Mervyn Barrett OBE, the man who had hoped to become Police Commissioner of Lincolnshire until the seemingly brilliant Matthew Brown wormed his way into his confidence and allegedly tricked him out of £100,000 while working as his campaign manager in 2012. This week, inquiries by the Mail revealed that the alleged victims of this well-spoken conman include not only aristocrats but a solicitor and a former government adviser. Over the past ten years, he has taken in hundreds of people. He is plain old Matthew Edward Brown, a convicted fraudster who poses as an aristocrat of independent means, concocting lies of monstrous proportions as he goes. Sebastian Von Anhalt (one of several aliases) is not a German prince or an English QC or the boyfriend of a TV presenter - all of which he has claimed to be over the years. ‘And utterly brazen.’ But what neither she nor her exclusive guests could have guessed is that the disappearance of the sculpture would introduce them to a convicted fraudster with a decade-long career, who has been dubbed the real-life Talented Mr Ripley. But for Lady Worcester, who organised the event to raise money for pig charity Farms Not Factories, the loss of ‘Dittisham Lady’ is galling. Matthew Brown (left) attended the charity auction hosted by the Marchioness of Worcester Tracy Ward (right)
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