The first in a new series of BBC Wales’ current affairs programme Taro Naw is an hour-long special which tracks down one of Wales’ most prolific fraudsters, fifteen years after the programme first revealed his criminal history.
In 1995 Taro Naw won an RTS Award for an investigation into the criminal dealings of Kenner Elias Jones from Caernarfon, who at the time was a Liberal Democrat candidate at the local council election in Pentyrch, South Wales.
BBC Wales journalist Marc Edwards reported the astounding story of Ken Jones’ deception, lies and betrayal, in the UK, United States and Canada. In Britain, he had been convicted numerous times, mostly charges of theft and obtaining money by deception, before moving to Canada. There, he even conned his own wife. On that programme, he was described by a Senior Immigration Officer in the United States as “…the best conman I have ever encountered in my entire career.”
Following the programme, Ken Jones was expelled from the Liberal Democrats.
On Monday 13 September, Taro Naw reveals that this was far from the end of the Ken Jones story. The programme reveals that Ken Jones is still deceiving and defrauding on a bigger scale than ever and has for the last seven years been posing as a doctor in Africa, without any medical qualifications whatsoever.
In Kenya since 2003, Ken Jones has also been running his own charity, Luke’s Fund, even though he’s been found guilty of theft and fraud on over 60 separate occasions. The conman also claims to be a priest.
During the last few years he has defrauded friends, businesses and charities of thousands of pounds.
Taro Naw travels to Africa and on to the Netherlands to confront Ken Jones about his latest claims that he is a qualified doctor, to speak to some of his victims and to try and decipher this complex character’s web of deceit.
Taro Naw, Monday 13 September, BBC Wales on S4C, 9.30pm
