ANDY Harmer, 45, runs a lookalikes agency and lives in Eastbourne. “Feeling despondent after watching David Beckham get sent off in the 1998 World Cup, I heard my phone ring and when I answered it, a man’s voice said: ‘How do you feel disgracing your country? You’d better watch out.’ "Stunned, I told him he’d got the wrong number and I hung up.
Just 19, I’d been working as a David Beckham lookalike for around a year and couldn’t believe what had just happened. How had they got my phone number? Did they think I was the real Beckham? I put it down to drunk men at the pub messing around and thought no more of it. But a few days later, I discovered my car had been completely burnt out.
Being young and not wanting to cause a fuss, I didn’t report the incident and eventually the abuse stopped. It was crazy – but as I was learning, there was never a dull moment impersonating one of the most famous footballers on the planet. Aged 18, I was working at a mate’s garage valeting cars, when people began telling me and my then-girlfriend, Camilla Shadbolt, that we were the image of Posh and Becks .
We signed up to a lookalikes agency, not thinking much would come of it. But within a few months I had to leave my job as we were getting so many bookings, doing newspaper and magazine shoots, VIP club appearances and openings. Realising I could make a lucrative career out of it, I began to pore over photos to copy David’s ever-changing clothes and hairstyles.
I also watc.