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(Tenured Radical)

Saturday, January 21, 2006

See How Far You Can Get
With a Degree from a
Diploma Mill?




'In his time Robert Hyams has posed as one of the world's top microbiologists, claiming breakthroughs in the field of Aids and cancer. He has tricked banks, property agents and car companies out of fortunes.

But it was his pretence to be a millionaire art buyer that finally led to jail for the conman when he attempted to swindle the auctioneers Christie's out of more than £1m worth of French masterpieces.

Sentencing Hyams, who pleaded guilty to six counts of attempting to obtain property by deception and three related offences at Southwark crown court yesterday, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC described him as "a persistent, serious and sophisticated fraudster" who had led detectives on a "sorry dance."

The court heard how the attempted art fraud, which a repentant Hyams said had made him feel "dirty", began in February 2002 when the 51-year-old approached Christie's posing as a professor of bioscience and wealthy art collector. He convinced the auctioneers of his wealth with a forged bank reference, purportedly from the Union Bank of California, which suggested Hyams had £5m to spend.

Edmund Fowler, prosecuting, told the court how Hyams' claim to be a professor had been falsely corroborated by a certificate from the non-existent "University of Canterbury," which Hyams had purchased in the US for £200.'