The Peculiar World Of Little Nicholas

The BBC once cottoned on to the fact that a short Irishman was to be seen, year after year, in the winner's enclosure at the Grand National. They discovered who he was and interviewed him. He was open about how he had done it. The trainer would think he was a guest of the owner. The owner would think he was someone to do with the trainer. No one ever asked.

There are many examples of impostors. They can be as innocent as our man in the winner's enclosure or less innocent. They are not all fantasists, as some are put up to it by others, but generally that is exactly what they are - fantasists who have a need to associate themselves with the famous, the powerful or the rich. And Spain has a fantasist impostor who has had a need to associate with all three. His name is Francisco Nicolás Gómez Iglesias, better known to the Spanish media as "el pequeño Nicolás", little Nicholas, whose craving for association has gone further than mere association. His extraordinary story began to unravel in October when he was arrested and charged with fraud, forgery and identity theft.

Little Nicholas is now twenty years old, but the public display of his world of fantasy, and later deception, goes back to 2008 when, just fourteen years old, he made his first public appearance. Mariano Rajoy and the then president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, attended the celebration for the day of the community. In the video of the report of this celebration you can see Little Nicholas looking over towards the reporter, and so at the camera, and then moving towards her. He tries to obstruct her. She asks him to stop pushing her. She realises that here is a boy who is pretending to be with security.

It was a taster of what was to come because Little Nicholas, among other things, claimed to be involved with the security services, and in particular the National Intelligence Centre (CNI). It was this fantasy which was to lead to his arrest; he allegedly fabricated a document supposedly from the CNI and forged the signature of the government's vice-premier, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría.

Little Nicholas was well-known in Partido Popular Nuevas Generaciones' circles (the PP youth wing), but somehow he managed to have contacts that went way beyond this political involvement. Yes, there were politicians with whom he supposedly had close links, such as Ana Botella, the mayor of Madrid, and Sáenz de Santamaría, but there were also associations with the royal family. He had met Princess Cristina who apparently believed he could help her with regard to the "caso Noos" affair. This association with the royal household came to an end, he claims, when the CNI started to ask him to do things he didn't like. Little Nicholas had also, though, met King Felipe, and that is beyond doubt. There is a photo of him bowing in front of the new king at his coronation.

The list of contacts and associations Little Nicholas alleges to have had would take far too long to detail. The royal household and others, even including Las Vegas Sands, the promoters of the failed Eurovegas project, all deny these contacts. His claims are utterly extraordinary but there is at the back of them nagging questions, such as how he was able to, for instance, apparently be invited to the king's coronation and how it was that he was always to be seen at various events.

Little Nicholas, who seemingly craved fame, has now found it, but it is fame that has come as a result of his fantasies having got out of hand. His deceptions were used to allegedly extract commissions for "helping out" thanks to his supposed contacts. This was the case with the forged CNI document. He was using influence that he didn't actually have to defraud. Or did he have influence? The revelations are coming thick and fast and the latest involve the secretary of state for trade, Jaime García-Legaz. He admits that he might have been "imprudent". Why? Well, because Little Nicholas, then eighteen, was seemingly involved in meetings between Legaz and senior representatives of Madrid town hall at which licences were discussed. Little Nicholas's alleged frauds stem from seeking kickbacks for licences.

The Little Nicholas case has become ever more bizarre. Is he just a wild fantasist with "megalomaniac delusions", as was noted when he appeared before the judge in October? Or is there more to it? The judge herself found it, for example, hard to understand how he had attended all the various events he had without seemingly not having alerted someone to his behavour. No one ever asked, just like the man in the winner's enclosure. But many others are now wondering. Fantasist, yes, but was someone putting him up to it?