Investigators in São Paulo, Brazil, have learned that a court judge worked for 23 years using a fabricated British identity. Initially known as José Eduardo Franco dos Reis, he adopted the name Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield, an alter ego typical of British aristocracy.
Wickfield, who assumed his new identity in the 1980s, enlisted in law school and worked as a judge from 1995 until his retirement in 2018. In 1995, he revealed to a Brazilian newspaper that he was the son of English nobility, born in Brazil but reared in the UK until the age of 25.
Police exposed the ruse after a report by news outlet G1. They verified the individual’s fingerprints matched a Brazilian man named Dos Reis. Following these discoveries, Brazilians became flabbergasted, contemplating how someone could maintain such an extended and detailed deception, notwithstanding his peculiar adopted name.
Identifying as Wickfield in October, he visited a government office to renew his ID card, producing all documents with the “British” names, yet somehow matching Dos Reis’s birth registration number. The police found that the birth certificate was altered, which enabled him to enter the University of São Paulo’s law school and work as a judge.
When questioned by police about the fraud, he claimed Wickfield was his twin brother, who had been adopted by British nobility as an infant. He provided no additional explanation for the names; though, they seemed inspired by British literature, like Lancelot of the Round Table or Mr. Wickfield from Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield.
A public prosecutor has charged Dos Reis with identity fraud and the use of false documents. Court officers are currently unable to locate him, so he hasn’t been officially summoned to respond. Following these events, the São Paulo Court halted his pension payments as a retired judge, as he had received a payment of R$166,413.94 (above $28,000) in February.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/07/brazil-judge-false-name
