Truesee's Daily Wonder

 

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
Published: 7:45AM BST 19 Jul 2009

A teenager has fooled aviation bosses into thinking he was a tycoon in a hoax that recalls the Steven Spielberg movie, Catch Me If You Can

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.

The police will not be taking action against the teenager, who is reported to suffer from a form of autism and to be able to recall the exact detail of every airline's flight schedule.

Malcolm Coupar, the commercial manager of Aurigny, the airline owned by the Guernsey government, said he and his managing director had been interested in the proposals put forward by Tait.

"Some of the things he said were the sort of things that were indicative that there might have been some substance to his claims," said Mr Coupar.

"If they were real then there would have been opportunities for us to expand our business and that's not the sort of thing we are going to ignore."