British conman who fleeced a woman of her life savings released from Spanish jail
A British conman who posed as a Swiss banker and an MI6 agent to fleece a girlfriend out of hundreds of thousands of pounds has been released from a Spanish jail.
Mark Acklom, 50, was extradited to Madrid two years ago after serving a six-year term in the UK for duping a Bristol woman out of her life savings.
He was wanted by the Spanish authorities after going on the run in 2016 midway through a three-year jail term for fraud.
But after being returned to Spain and completing his sentence, he has now been released and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Acklom, who is originally from London, is a serial fraudster with a criminal record dating back to his teenage years.
In 2012 he met mother of two, Carolyn Woods, in her clothing boutique, telling her he was a Swiss banker.
The couple began a relationship within days and quickly moved in together, but she later discovered he was already married with two young children.
Acklom managed to persuade her it was a cover for his role as an MI6 operative and promised to marry her.
He told her he urgently needed cash in order to carry out renovations to a string of expensive properties he owned but spent the money on private school fees for his children and a fleet of cars including a £60,000 Porsche Cayenne.
He was eventually tracked down to Switzerland and was extradited back to the UK where he admitted a string of fraud offences.
The total amount he stole from Ms Woods is thought to be in excess of £800,000 and prosecutors have been using the Proceeds of Crime Act (Poca) to try to recover the money.
At a hearing at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday it emerged that Acklom had been released from prison in Spain.
John Hardy KC, prosecuting, said a full Poca hearing was now expected to take place in 2024.
He said: “I understand Mr Acklom has been released from his Spanish incarceration and, reading between the lines, we do not anticipate that Mr Acklom will seek to attend the hearing in person but may try to attend remotely.”
Judge Martin Picton fixed an administrative hearing for November 10 and said a four-day hearing will begin on April 16 2024.
When he was aged just 16, Acklom convinced Leeds Permanent Building Society that he was a 25-year-old stockbroker on £214,000 a year.
They gave him a £466,000 mortgage for a £516,000 executive home in Dulwich, south London.
He also spent £11,000 after stealing his father’s credit card, swindled a former teacher out of £13,000 and ran up a £34,000 bill with a private charter jet company.
He later received a four-year prison sentence.
He has been jailed at least five times in Spain, where his wife and children currently live, for a string of offences.
