Sean Penn raised the bar for method actors when he went “full retard” in I Am Sam – but a Swansea-based fraudster has taken “getting into a character” to a new level after faking being in a vegetative state for two  years.
Alan Knight, 47, claimed he was unable to move from the neck down and was frequently pictured on an oxygen machine, drooling, and being wheeled about by his “caring” wife as he tried to escape punishment for conning an elderly neighbour out of £40,000. Alas, after 24 months, the jig was up when he was spotted on CCTV pushing a shopping trolley around Tesco and driving. Doh!
Detective Constable Paul Harry, from South Wales Police, said: “In my entire career this is the most calculated, long-term deception of a vulnerable, elderly neighbour I have ever seen.” The irony is Knight will probably end up in a vegetative state when his cell mates find out what he’s been sent down for.

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