A company director, who stole more than £1.6 million in tax while pretending to be a spy to hide his life of crime, has been jailed.

Raymond Thomas, 71, of Tilney All Saints, Kings Lynn, told family and friends he was a spy often working abroad, but he was in fact travelling to various holiday homes funded entirely from a VAT fraud.

The fantasist told HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigators he worked for US Homeland Security and produced key components for a drone.

He even complained to the Prime Minister ‘as a desperate measure’ to obtain money withheld by HMRC, claiming he worked ‘fiercely and patriotically in the protection of the citizens of this country and others’.