No RYR - I had read a different new article elsewhere and not the Times article. Forget what I posted earlier...!
The chap is a chancer and a lunatic it would appear. He forgot or never heard the Warren Buffet rule number 1 of management:
Ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear on the front page of their local paper the next day, to be read by their spouses, children and friends.
Ignorance is no defence in the act of impersonation. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.