A divorced mother of three, who received £56,000 in her settlement from her ex-husband, has lost the whole lot to a conman who said he’d help her invest in a mortgage scheme. The mother, from Oxford, says she was groomed by the conman for the purposes of swindling her out of the money.

The woman, aged 38, says other women should be careful not to fall for the same trick. She’s said she doesn’t want to be named (obviously) but the man who conned her (named as ‘Eric Fretten’) is being sought by police.

The gullible woman stated:

He was getting my trust by doing nice things like taking me out for dinner. He convinced me he was a financial and mortgage expert and everything he did was believable. Looking back, he groomed me.

My money has all gone. You cannot describe how vulnerable and stupid this makes you feel. Now all the money I had set aside for a home for me and my three children to live in has gone.

According to the woman, the conman overheard her conversation about her divorce payment and he offered to help her invest it. Just how stupid was this woman???

It then took less than three months for the man to take all of the £55,900 she had received in her settlement, and disappear with it. He’d wooed her with meals out, ballet tickets and fake stories. Incredibly, he still hasn’t been caught. But then, why would he, he’s not the stupid one?

No, the stupid one went on to say:

It may sound stupid but I completely trusted him. I thought he was my friend.

He was a 61-year-old guy. I didn’t think he could be a conman.

After she was overheard bragging in public how she was going to invest her divorce money in property, the scam artist moved in and managed to persuade her to transfer £5,000 from her Lloyds TSB account into his account in a matter of weeks. He’d managed to get the full £54,900 from her a few weeks later, which included one single payment of £34,000.

It’s unlikely he’ll ever be caught

Clive Bellmore