Conman’s police stunt to access Potter cast
A NOTORIOUS sex offender and conman was jailed yesterday after impersonating a police officer to get the phone numbers of child stars in hit play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child.
Scots pervert Reece Scobie wore full police uniform – including body armour and handcuffs – and managed to get backstage at the Palace Theatre in Soho, London.
The 23-year-old conman – who was compared to famed Catch Me If You Can fraudster Frank Abagnale after committing a global travel scam as a teenager – asked for the young stars’ phone numbers and email addresses.
Prosecutor Darren Watts said: ‘He quite deliberately and fraudulently posed as a police officer to go to a London play where the two main stars involved are children, to gain access to them.
‘This individual is a known sex offender.’
Scobie, originally from Inchture, Perthshire, was arrested shortly after the incident when doubts were raised about his true identity.
He admitted impersonating a police officer and wearing a police uniform with intent to deceive.
The swindler – who already has a conviction for possessing indecent images of children – was jailed for eight months at Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Mr Watts said: ‘He attended at the show purporting to be a police officer needing to speak to the two stars.
‘He was then ushered backstage and said that there were individuals who wanted them.
‘He proceeded to request various personal details, including mobile phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses.’
Scobie also breached sexual offences prevention order requirements by failing to notify police of a change of address, and by using a bank account not registered with police to book a two-week stay at Soho’s Z Hotel and theatre tickets.
Mr Watts said: ‘Using that bank account, he has obviously booked these hotel rooms and he also used that bank account to book tickets to the show every night for 14 nights.’
Scobie was locked up for 16 months when he was 19 after admitting a massive con to fund his ‘fantasy’ globetrotting lifestyle. He duped travel agents out of more than £70,000 by booking flights around the world and rooms in expensive hotels used by stars including Angelina Jolie.
At Perth Sheriff Court in 2013, Scobie was described as a technology expert who was a borderline genius and had manipulated his expertise to carry out the fraud. His own solicitor compared him to Frank Abagnale Jr – the notorious conman played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2002 Oscar-nominated biopic Catch Me If You Can.
The Steven Spielberg film depicted the early life of the now 67-year-old former fraudster as he remained on the run from the FBI and posed as, among other things, a doctor and a pilot – all before his 19th birthday.
Last February, Scobie – who suffers from Asperger syndrome, a developmental disability – was jailed for 12 months in Iceland for fraud and possessing indecent images of children.
He was arrested when his New York-bound flight, paid for with a fake credit card, touched down to refuel in Reykjavik.
Scobie admitted fraud charges, as well as possessing and distributing 4,750 indecent photographs and 345 videos of children, during a hearing at the District Court of Reykjanes.
In July, Police Scotland Chief Constable Phil Gormley lodged an action at Perth Sheriff Court to argue that Scobie’s details be added to the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Mr Gormley is pursuing the rare civil action because Scobie was caught with indecent images of children while he was abroad.
The notification hearing was heard in private but a Scottish Courts Service spokesman later confirmed an interim order had been granted in favour of the chief constable.
However, Scobie’s solicitor asked the court for time to seek legal aid to fight the case and it was sisted, or paused, until the end of November.
Scobie admitted two counts of breaching notification requirements at court in London yesterday.
‘Requested personal details’