Man appears in court over case of American found in Hereford

A man has appeared in court charged in connection with the mysterious appearance in Hereford of a vulnerable, elderly man with an American accent who could not explain how he got there.

The case made headlines around the world and led to him being identified as Roger Curry, from Los Angeles, who had dementia.

Simon Hayes, 52, of Taunton, Somerset, appeared before magistrates on Wednesday in Hereford, charged with intending to pervert the course of justice and three fraud offences.

Hayes gave his nationality as British. The case was transferred to Worcester crown court, where he will next appear on 23 May. Hayes was granted unconditional bail. No pleas were taken.

Curry was found at Hereford bus station in November 2015. An ambulance was flagged down for him. He was taken into the care of a nursing home, and police and social services spent months trying to confirm his identity.

A BBC investigation later alleged that he was abandoned. Because of the high cost of care in the US, elderly people are sometimes left at hospitals.

The details of the perverting the course of justice charge against Hayes are that he falsely represented to West Mercia police and members of the public that he had found Curry and did not know his identity.

He is also charged with making a false representation that he had found an unknown man and handed him over to the care of the NHS, intending to cause loss to the health service or expose that person to loss.

Hayes is also accused of two charges of possessing articles for use in fraud. According to the details, the first of these involves fake references by Maj Gen Buster Howes, a former commandant general of the Royal Marines. The second allegedly centres on fake letters from Control Risks, a global security company.

When he was found, Curry appeared to have been well looked after and was wearing new clothing from Tesco.

Though he gave the name Roger Curry to staff caring for him, police did not know whether it was his real name. He told doctors and care home staff that he was not from the area and had been training nearby, leading police to contact veterans’ organisations in case he was a former serviceman.

An international appeal was launched and somebody came forward having found an old image on the internet showing what looked like a younger version of the man. The image came from a 1958 yearbook for Edmonds high school in Washington state and showed an 18-year-old student called Roger Curry.

The BBC’s Panorama programme linked Curry to an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, where neighbours identified him as a former nurse who was married with two children.

Curry’s son Kevin told Panorama he had nothing to do with the apparent abandonment of his father. His father became ill when they were visiting England on holiday, he said.

Curry was flown back to the US and taken under the care of authorities in Los Angeles.