Windsor conman jailed

A professional conman was jailed for four-and-a-half years today after he tricked his way into Windsor Castle posing as a senior policeman accompanying close friends of Princes William and Harry.

Fantasist Michael Hammond first duped control room officers into letting him through the Henry VIII gate, which is normally reserved for members of the Royal Family and staff.

Then he spent more than an hour inside the grounds.

Although no royals were at home during the incident in May last year - 12 days after an extensive review of royal security - it sparked a major scare.

Decorator's son Hammond, from Manchester Road, Cubitt Town, east London, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at London's Isleworth Crown Court to one count of being a public nuisance - a charge incorporating 11 police officer impersonations and one occasion of wasting police time.

They saw the 36-year-old leading the Metropolitan Police on a string of wild goose chases as he made hoax calls for assistance and reported sighting armed Operation Trident criminals and murder suspects.

Innocent members of the public were searched at gunpoint and armed emergency units were dispatched on several occasions.

In February last year, Hammond was even given a police escort when he called the City of London Police pretending he was a doctor on his way to perform a life-saving operation on a child.

Regarded by police as one of the "most professional conmen" they have come across, serial liar Hammond has also pretended to be a millionaire, falsely claimed to have dated singer Dannii Minogue, and insisted he was friends with the Prince of Wales, his two sons and the Duke of York.