I’d not be safe in prison, says gay ‘Hollywood con queen’

AN ACCUSED fraudster facing extradition to the US after allegedly scamming £1.5million from aspiring actors has claimed his homosexuality would make him a target in prison.

Hargobind Punjabi Tahilramani, nicknamed the Hollywood Con Queen, is said to have hoodwinked actors, stunt men, make-up artists, and other crew members into parting with vast sums of cash in a six-year scamming spree.

The Indonesian-born 42-year-old impersonated leading female film chiefs including Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm and Sherry Lansing, the former boss of Paramount, to offer them bogus jobs, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.

He now faces extradition to San Diego prison in California, but his lawyers told the court his high-pitched voice, homosexuality and personality disorder would make him highly vulnerable to sexual abuse in prison .

Joel Smith, prosecuting, rejected this, saying: “He has no connection to this country. He is an unreliable narrator and lied about pretty much everything he was saying and even lied about what he lied about. He is pretty much incapable of telling the truth.

“There is nothing unusual about being gay in prison, and there is nothing unusual about having a personality disorder in prison.”

The court previously heard Mr Tahilramani pretended to be as many as three different people on the same call to lure his victims to his home with the promise of work on blockbuster films.

Once they arrived, they were fleeced out of thousands of pounds by Tahilramani and his accomplices.

It also emerged the accused was sent by his family in 2022 to a theology school in Indonesia where he was subjected to exorcisms. During 2004 and 2005 his family again sent him to conversion therapy. His highly traumatic childhood left him suffering histrionic personality disorder, the court heard.

The hearing continues.