Adrian Pengelly - killing cancer patients near you!

Alice Shortcake emailed me about this guy to give me fodder for Skepocalypse. Fodder, indeed! Though not as prominent as many of the quacks discussed here, due to his upcoming events in the US, I had to seize the opportunity to take some action. So I tracked down the location and sent an email to the Sherriff's Department in Cave Creek, AZ where this will be taking place.

I am doubtful of any positive results, but I figured it was worth a shot. Those small town cops are very protective of their turf, so who knows.

I posted all the details on my blog, including a copy of the email that I sent.

Many thanks to Alice for bringing this one to my attention, and for all her hard work on the Adrian Pengelly Exposed site.

Thanks for the link to Alices work. Will check out your work too. It seems these scammers are just everywhere at the moment, a good debunking has never been more important!

Earlier thread on his exploits:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154658

I'd love to know if Pengelly has a work permit, since he has a criminal record after pleading guilty to three charges under the 1939 Cancer Act.

The Sherriff wrote me back, this was his response:

Thank you sir for the information… I will forward this on to our detectives to look at the situation…

Lieutenant Rich Burden
Commander, District IV
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office

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Translation: "*yawn* we'll drive by and peek in the windows once we've met our parking ticket quota."

Look on the bright side, if you realized who the sherrif of maricopa county is, and this guy gets nailed, youd be an extremely happy guy

Hint, there is no immunity from Tent City for white collar criminals

pipelineaudio said:

Look on the bright side, if you realized who the sherrif of maricopa county is, and this guy gets nailed, youd be an extremely happy guy

Hint, there is no immunity from Tent City for white collar criminals

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Indeed, I'll definitely be following up to see how things went down. The MCSO should have a set of those pink boxer shorts ready for him, with holes cut out in the back.

Pengelly claims on his website that he, his family and associates have received multiple threats of violence and even death from the "three disturbed individuals" who reported him to Trading Standards and got him featured on the BBC consumer programme "Watchdog".

What would you do if you received even one such threat? I'd report it to the police immediately. Last month I wrote to Pengelly's local police force explaining that I'm one of these three individuals and that I have never contacted him directly, let alone threatened him. I also offered to provide handwriting samples, my computer, phone records etc. Yesterday I got this letter from Inspector Martin Taylor of the West Mercia Police Force:

"Thank you for your letter dated 30 March 2010 regarding Mr Pengelly.

At present West Mercia Police have not received an allegation with regard to you. I do note your offer of fully co-operating with us, and if the situation changes then I or a member of my team will be in touch with you."

Are you reading this, Adrian? Please do your duty as a citizen and report these threats IMMEDIATELY. I'm sure Inspector Taylor will be happy to assist you!

He probably isn't reading this, too busy polishing his energy crystals.

I read the link to the watchdog report, I hadnt actually seen the programme.
I found it very depressing reading the responses below. Most of them are attacking Watchdog for doing the programme on this scam artist. (They havnt seen the site 'Whats the harm' either )

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/09/adrian_pengellys_healing_hands.html

Many anti-Pengelly comments were removed within a few hours of being posted. The same thing happened with the Daily Mail's totally uncritical article about Pengelly (placed by his PR company) last year.

That is pretty sad about the comments, but I can understand BBC's position, they don't want to get sued for libel by Adrian. The Simon Singh affair showed us all how screwed up UK libel laws are.

Here's an update on the Pengelly saga.

I gather that Ade's workshops in the USA were cancelled, but an American woman called Catherine Bennett (sometimes described as his girlfriend) is doing her utmost to publicize his miraculous skills on profiles and blogs. Rather oddly she uses these postings to direct people to what she describes as Pengelly's "well-maintained website" - a website that has now been taken down!

Also, you may remember that after his exposure on various sceptical websites and the BBC's "Watchdog" show Pengelly thanked the MPs, doctors and religious leaders who supported his work. He didn't actually name them but he thanked them. You'd think that amongst this group there'd be a few wealthy people happy to help Pengelly out of any financial difficulties he might find himself in, but such is not the case: he recently filed for bankruptcy.

Report Requested For : ADRIAN JAMES PENGELLY

Report for Bankruptcy Case

Individual Details

Surname PENGELLY
Forename(s) ADRIAN JAMES
Title MR*
Gender Male
Occupation Elementary occupations
Date of Birth 27 August 1966
Last Known Address Nordan Hall
Nordan
Leominster
Herefordshire
HR6 0AJ

Insolvency Case Details

Case Name ADRIAN JAMES PENGELLY
Court Hereford County Court
Type Bankruptcy
Number 0000187
Case Year 2010
Order Date 12 May 2010
Status Currently Bankrupt : Automatic Discharge will be 12 May 2011 See FootNote
Case Description ADRIAN JAMES PENGELLY Currently a Healer and a Therapist of Nordon Hall Nordan Leominster Herefordshire HR6 0AJ.

*Notice that he's dropped the fake title!

UK Insolvency Register

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("Elementary Occupations"? I don't know what it means either, but it amuses me to think it's something to do with working with elementals. )

Whatever happened to the decades-long waiting list of patients he supposedly acquired after becoming genuinely famous for the first time in his life? Why haven't the hundreds, if not thousands, of people he's cured of cancer not stumped up a few quid each to help him out? Tut tut...how soon they forget...

There are no magical cures. These so-called healers should be treated like a common criminal for stealing peoples money and promising false hope.

Do they let anyone into America to work now then??? He has a criminal record, is a bankrupt and yet he is still free to rip off USA citizens. I believe the bankruptcy thing was to avoid paying outstanding child support...nice bloke

Alice - no way to know how much effect your own good work has had in this story, but I want to thank you for all you have done. It's this sort of painstaking detailing of such frauds that wears them down.

Soapy Sam said:

Alice - no way to know how much effect your own good work has had in this story, but I want to thank you for all you have done. It's this sort of painstaking detailing of such frauds that wears them down.

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Thanks, Soapy Sam!

*curtsies*

Things seem to have gone quiet on the Pengelly front, but if any forum members hear about him making appearances in the USA or Spain please let me know.