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A notorious conman who seduced a divorcee out of £300,000 after posing as an MI6 spy is set to be released early from his five-year jail sentence.  

Mark Acklom, 48, conned mother-of-two Carolyn Woods out of her life savings - leaving her on the brink of suicide - after posing as a millionaire Swiss banker and MI6 spy. 

Acklom was jailed for five years and eight months in August 2019, but will now be released on licence in a fortnight. 

He will be under tough conditions and will have to declare his earning, business dealings and assets, close any foreign bank accounts, stop using false names and also keep police informed of his movements.

If any restrictions are flouted, the con man could be jailed for another five years.

However, Ms Woods believes the conditions will not really 'affect' what he does.  

The mother, who has given up hope of getting back any of the money Acklom stole, said: 'He always does what is best for him. I don't think having a Serious Crime Prevention Order in his name is really going to affect what he does, unless he is physically tagged or something like that.' 

Mark Acklom, once an infamous schoolboy fraudster, posed as a Swiss banker and MI6 spy to seduce Carolyn Woods

Mark Acklom, 48, conned mother-of-two Carolyn Woods out of her life savings - leaving her on the brink of suicide 

Acklom used an alias and posed as an MI6 agent and millionaire banker as he wooed Gloucestershire divorcee Ms Woods before isolating her from her family and friends, stealing £300,000 and leaving her heartbroken, destitute and suicidal. 

Over the course of a year-long relationship, Acklom promised to marry the mother-of-two and tricked her into handing over her life savings.

At the time, he was actually married with two young children - telling Ms Woods he was flying to see her from his home in Switzerland. 

But before they could walk down the aisle, he vanished with the cash, leaving her emotionally and financially ruined and on the brink of suicide.

He was initially charged with defrauding Ms Woods out of £850,000, however the CPS today accepted his guilty plea to fraud amounting to £299,000. 

Avon and Somerset Constabulary began investigating Acklom, who told Carolyn his surname was Conway, after she reported the fraud. 

At the time he was awaiting trial in Murcia, Spain for defrauding two brothers into paying him £200,000 as a deposit on the sale of buildings he did not own. 

Ms Woods met Acklom in 2012 when he went into her boutique to buy a jacket (pictured), telling her he was a Swiss banker visiting the UK to buy a Cotswold airfield  

Acklom was arrested in a plush apartment in Zurich where he was living with his wife and children, after five years on the run. 

His arrest and extradition in 2019 followed 30 years of fraud which began as a public schoolboy at 16 when he was imprisoned for stealing his father's gold credit card.

In 2015, he was jailed for three years in Spain for defrauding two brothers who he conned into paying him for flats he claimed to own in London.

He was given temporary release halfway through his sentence and fled to Switzerland before changing his name. 

Although he is now expected to be released in two weeks, Spanish authorities have asked for his extradition so he can complete the outstanding 18 months of his sentence.

A court hearing in London is expected to rule on the issue soon. 

In sentencing Acklom to five years and eight months, Judge Martin Picton called him 'cruel and cynical' and said that he took advantage of Miss Woods in an 'utterly selfish manner'.

The court heard that he turned Miss Woods' life 'upside down' after she met him on January 19, 2012.

At the time, she was a 'happily single' and 'sociable' divorcee living in rented accommodation in Tetbury, near Bath, Somerset.

Charles Thomas, prosecuting, told how Miss Woods was looking to buy a property as a cash buyer, with £800,000 to her credit - but was not planning to spend all of that money on a property.

But just a month later, on February 29, Miss Woods had proposed to Acklom - who she knew as Mark Conway - and 'regarded the relationship as a permanent one', Mr Thomas told the court.

Miss Woods understood that they were to marry, and even spent £6,000 on a wedding dress - which she still has to this day, Mr Thomas said. 

Sentencing Acklom, Judge Picton said: 'You took advantage of your victim in a cruel and cynical manner. I accept that you did not target your victim from the outset.

'But it is plain that once you knew what you might glean from her, you set about doing so in a ruthless and utterly selfish manner. You were quite prepared to spin a web of lies, and you cared not at all for the emotional impact.

'The money you did get from her slipped through your fingers like water. Having cut ties from her you escaped from this country, and since then you have not made any effort to make good for the harm that you did.

'Miss Wood has not seen a penny of the money you took from her, and it is pretty unlikely that she will.'

Acklom was sentenced to five years and eight months - with the 237 days he has already spent in custody since February counting towards this sentence.

Miss Woods understood that they were to marry, and even spent £6,000 on a wedding dress (left) which she still has to this day. Cards that Mark Acklom bought for Carolyn Woods (left)

Carolyn Woods (shown middle) is pictured arriving at Bristol Crown Court for the hearing in 2019

Heartbroken Carolyn, of Bath in Somerset, previously said: 'I was completely devastated, he left me destitute and destroyed my life.

'I felt as though I had fallen in love. He told me he had never felt this way about anyone and we must get married.

'I've still got the wedding dress I never wore.

'It was all a charade. At the time I actually wished he had killed me. I was suicidal.'

Carolyn met Acklom in 2012 when he came into her boutique to buy a jacket, chatted her up and said he was a Swiss banker visiting the UK to buy a Cotswold airfield.

They sparked up a relationship within days and moved in together, though she later discovered he had a second home nearby with his wife and two young children. 

Carolyn, in her early 60s, said: 'He was flirtatious, charming and very entertaining.

'He has a great presence and charisma, he exudes confidence and the air around him was electric. I was caught up in a whirlwind of excitement.

In the early months of 2012, Acklom moved Miss Woods into an extensive Georgian property in Brock Street in Bath (pictured) which she believed was owned by him. In fact, Acklom was paying rent for the house, using the money that Miss Woods had paid, into his associate's account

Images taken from a brochure showing the inside of a house Acklom claimed he owned, in Bath, Somerset

Over the course of a year-long relationship, Acklom promised to marry the mother-of-two (pictured) and tricked her into handing over the huge sum 

'He said he was doing things for The Prince's Trust and helping fundraising at Clifton College and everything was cloaked in respectability.

'One of the most extraordinary things he told me was that it was all a cover and he was an MI6 agent. It sounds very far-fetched, but he convinced me it was true.

'We were in London and he said he'd been called in by his boss, so he drove me to the MI6 building and I watched him walk down into a car park past two armed policemen.

'There are no photographs of us together because he said his handlers would not allow it because of his security.' 

Carolyn said her two daughters believe she was brainwashed by Acklom, who she later learned had been jailed for fraud as a public schoolboy.

At 16 Acklom, who was studying in Eastbourne, East Sussex, stole his dad's gold Amex card, posed as a stockbroker and hired jets to fly his friends around Europe.

The youngster even convinced a building society to give him a mortgage of nearly £500,000 which he used to buy a small mansion in London.

He has since been jailed three times in Spain for a variety of fraud offences. He also changed his name to Marc Ros Rodriguez.