A fraudster stole the identity of a beautiful young American woman to cheat men, including serving police officers, on internet matchmaking sites.
Jacqueline Whittle, 50, from Southport, spun a web of lies to entrap her victims, including serving and retired policemen, and even told one man who had a brain tumour that she needed cash for emergency cancer treatment.
She had doubly duped the man as he had fallen for another of her fake profiles on the ‘uniform’ dating website and he ended up forking out a total of £14,483 on the two non-existent women.
He used his critical illness payout to pay for her “cancer operation” and then had to take out a large loan to pay off his divorce settlement.
Jacqueline Whittle, 50, of Hampton Road, Southport, jailed for three years following “callous frauds” of men she conned money out of online by stealing the profile picture of a beautiful American woman and getting them to fall in love with her.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that another victim was a retired policeman who fell in love with Whittle, who claimed to be a nurse in Southport using a false surname and the stolen Facebook photograph of a woman in America.
David Watson, prosecuting said: “He described himself as falling in love and believed she felt the same way. Although they never met he even sent her £220 to pay for a wedding dress as he believed the couple were getting married.
“He had come across her on a website dedicated to raising money for injured soldiers and she put her fake photo into an auction on the site so the winner could get a date.
“He sent her £680 to pay for a non-existent school trip for her daughter, vets and phone bills, petrol to visit him in Portsmouth and the installation of a Sky TV package and altogether lost out by £1,650.”
“Callous frauds”
Whittle, of Hampton Road, Southport had a suspended prison sentence hanging over her for benefit fraud at the time of the offences and had previous fraud convictions.
Jailing Whittle for three years today Judge Anil Murray said they were “callous frauds.”
He said: “You are a dishonest and deceitful person. You set up false profiles to dupe people out of money, people who were lonely and wanted companionship, and I’m sure this was your intention from the outset.”
Jacqueline Whittle, 50, of Hampton Road, Southport, jailed for three years following “callous frauds” of men she conned money out of online by stealing the profile picture of a beautiful American woman and getting them to fall in love with her.
Jobless Whittle pleaded guilty to defrauding five men and also tricking a woman into sending her £360 for an iPhone which she never sent her. Police investigated payments into Whittle’s account from other suspected victims but no charges followed.
Judge Murray said that her lies, which also included saying she and her daughter were struggling to pay bills, “deceived them into sending you money and you gave false reasons which would tug at the heart strings of honest and compassionate people.”
He said the victims had been left embarrassed and ashamed and the woman whose Facebook photograph she had been using was also embarrassed.
He pointed out that she was even continuing to lie in her probation report before the court.
She continued “to string him along by sending naked photographs”
Mr Watson had told the court that the total amount involved was £15,754 and the offences occurred in 2011 and 2012.
One victim said he was normally very careful about sending people money but he trusted her. He sent her cash so she could visit him but she kept putting him off with lies and eventually had texts sent to him claiming she had died.
The serving police officer who lost the greatest amount having being tricked by the two fake profiles had also paid for an allegedly missing return flight ticket from New York, paid for council tax, replacement car tyres, a £600 car and a holiday in Tunisia.
She continued “to string him along by sending naked photographs” purportedly of one of the women he believed he was communicating with.
Whittle told another man, whom she had also met on the uniform dating site, that she had become ill with a brain tumour and sent him a photograph of a head with an operation scar and he was tricked out of £850 to pay her household bills.
Nick Archer, defending, said “she has low self-esteem” having been on dating web sites using her own photograph with no response.
But Judge Murray did not accept that and said she had set them up to deceive people.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/