POLICE are looking for a prolific British conman who fled to Spain after allegedly conning a Tetbury woman who he promised to marry out of £850,000.

Carolyn Woods, 55, from Tetbury, was fleeced out of her life savings by Mark Acklom, 43, from London, during a year-long relationship.

Acklom allegedly posed as a Swiss banker and an MI6 agent and convinced Ms Woods that he needed the money to renovate a property, which she later found he did not own. 

Ms Woods, 55, told Sky News: "I was completely devastated, he left me destitute and destroyed my life. I felt as though I had fallen in love. He told me he had never felt this way about anyone and we must get married.

"I've still got the wedding dress I never wore. It was all a charade."

Police in Avon and Somerset began investigating Acklom two years ago.

During the two years, he was jailed three times in Spain for a variety of fraud offences. He also changed his name to Marc Ros Rodriguez.

Acklom was jailed for three years for duping two brothers into paying him £200,000 as a deposit on the sale of buildings he did not own.

In June, British police issued a European arrest warrant in his name in a bid to put him on trial in the UK for "fraud by false representation" against Ms Woods.

Ms Woods met Acklom when he walked into her Gloucestershire boutique to buy a jacket and chatted her up. He told her his name was Mark Conway and that he was a Swiss banker visiting the UK to buy a Cotswold airfield. 

Within days, they moved in together, though she later discovered he was also living nearby with his wife and two young children.

She said: "He was flirtatious, charming and very entertaining. He has a great presence and charisma, he exudes confidence and the air around him was electric. I was caught up in a whirlwind of excitement.

"He said he was doing things for The Prince's Trust and helping fundraising at Clifton College and everything was cloaked in respectability.

"One of the most extraordinary things he told me was that it was all a cover and he was an MI6 agent. It sounds very far-fetched, but he convinced me it was true. 

"What he was trying to do was isolate me, he got me to leave my job, move in with him and by the time I had given up my independence I was a prisoner."

One day, she said, she overheard him discussing a cash flow problem and offered to lend him money.

Ms Woods said: "I had just sold my house and I offered him a loan of £26,000. In the end I lent him everything I had.

"I was in love with the man Mark Acklom created. He hooked me and reeled me in."
Acklom told Sky News Ms Woods' claims were "nonsense", but later insisted he didn't really understand what she was saying about him.