In a scam that recalls the Steven Spielberg movie, Catch Me If You Can, a teenage boy has tricked British aviation executives into believing that he was a tycoon about to launch his own airline, it has emerged. The 17-year-old, from Yorkshire, posed as a businesman in his twenties, claiming to have a fleet of jets and a team of colleagues.
Using the pseudonym Adam Tait, he flew to Jersey to hold a meeting with the director of its airport and dealt with industry bosses over his proposals for a cut-price Channel Islands-based airline servicing most of Europe. Tait’s performance was so convincing that he persuaded the executive to meet with him again the following week.
His exploits echo the schemes of the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Catch Me If You Can. The film, in turn, was based on the real life escapades of Frank Abagnale Jr, who posed as an airline pilot from the age of 16 and 21. To give his talks credibility, Tait bought up websites in the name of American Global Group and Island Airways, and said that an American parent company had a readily available fleet of 12 jets.
Tait then approached various established airlines to ask whether they wanted to give him a franchise agreement. A number of different names were used, such as David Rich and Anita Dash, in telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges with senior airline executives to give the impression that he was part of a team.
The teenager managed to carry off the ruse for six months until journalists at a publication that had reported on his proposed business venture became suspicious. According to the Sunday Times, he was questioned by Essex police while trying to gain access to a 93-seater jet at Southend airport, having convinced the plane’s marketing agent that his “company” wanted to lease it.
Wow, this is scary.
Wonder what he wanted to do?
Mikk
After all that, I imagine plenty of companies will be eager to employ him…
Not really that weird I’d say. They normally wont check someone’s complete background rightaway and not all people will be easy to track, backgroundwise so .. yes … if you like playing games …
It’s probably a trainee of Brown.
And those executives .. bored as hell … they probably initially might had some doubts now and then .. but hey … way too much time on their hands … and those meetings … not always intelligent levels there … not very direct … .. a newbie wont be seen upon that much different .. (gelul om elkaar heen, that’s how we call it in dutch) …
I heard that he had Asperger’s?
This guy is gunna make one hell of a business exec one day, he has the number one quality for it, the gift of the blag! Hopefully his police record wont be too damaging.