'Fraudster left me mentally and emotionally scarred'

A Kent woman who was scammed out of more than £120,000 by a romance fraudster has described how she was left mentally and emotionally scarred by the ordeal.

"Jane", who does not want to be identified, said she transferred the money to a man she met online, who claimed to be an army officer involved in "covert operations" in Mali.

She told BBC South East that at the time she was ill and felt so low and lonely following the death of her husband that she wanted to meet someone.

Maxwell Rusey, formerly of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, has been jailed for five years for fraud and money laundering.

Jane had joined a website to meet new people and had been contacted by Rusey.

Following messages between the two, he claimed he wanted to live with her.

He told her he had a consignment of gold which he needed to import back to the UK and asked if she could help his friend pay the relevant duties and taxes.

She agreed and in 2022 and 2023 made 16 payments of money into accounts the man claimed belonged to his colleague.

Detectives from Kent Police discovered that Rusey was responsible for setting up the accounts.

Jane has spoken out to warn others about the risks of romance fraud.

"Apparently this is going on so much now it's rife and I just feel now that if I had known better, I would have gone to the police earlier," she said.

"A lot of people have said 'you are not the only one, there are many people who get scammed like this', but I just felt an idiot."

Rusey was arrested in March 2024 and later charged with fraud and money laundering offences, after a fake passport used to set up one of the accounts was found in his possession.

The 53-year-old admitted money laundering and possession of articles for use in fraud.

Det Con Mark Newman said: "Romance fraud is a particularly cruel offence which causes serious emotional harm for victims, as well as the financial impact it entails.

"Many victims struggle to report offences due to the level of deception used by fraudsters and I would like to praise the victim in this case for coming forward and supporting this prosecution."

He told the BBC that £128,000 of the losses have now been recovered.

Earlier this year a BBC South East investigation found reports of romance fraud to Action Fraud had risen by almost 60% over four years.

All police force areas saw a rise in cases between 2019 and 2023.

Dr Elisabeth Carter, a criminologist and forensic linguist at Kingston University, warned that fraudsters often use grooming tactics to manipulate victims.

She said their language has "key similarities with coercive control and domestic abuse, such as making the victim feel responsible for the emotional and physical wellbeing of the fraudster".

Almost £75m was reported to have been defrauded in the 7,660 romance fraud cases last year.

The oldest victim recorded since 2019 was 101.

The charity Victim Support said many victims were afraid to get help.

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