Suzanne Famula met Christopher Harris, 41, a car salesman, on an online dating site in November 2020. Harris, who has 16 previous convictions for more than 25 offences, including nine fraud-related cases, told Suzanne that he had long-term health problems and that he needed cash to "go private" to receive "proper care".
He was sentenced to 29 months in prison as well as being given a restraining order against contacting his victim.
He was sentenced to 29 months in prison as well as being given a restraining order against contacting his victim.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, my name's Suzanne Famula.
00:02 I met a guy online and got conduct of just over £20,000.
00:08 We first met in December, off and on for a few months,
00:11 and then got a bit more serious in the May.
00:13 He just asked me money for mortgage, council tax, bills,
00:17 hospital stays, going private.
00:21 And then I realised after a couple of months that it was all a lie.
00:28 I started the process of getting him done for it, which took...
00:33 And it's still taking forever, but he's been in prison and I had my money back.
00:37 It's a hard process and it's a long process, but it is worth doing.
00:41 It gets your money back.
00:43 If it makes the authorities and more people aware of the effect
00:48 that it has on you as a person and what it does to you,
00:52 it also might make them act a bit quicker,
00:55 because I think, what am I now, three years in,
00:58 and I haven't seen a penny from him.
01:02 It needs to be taken a bit more seriously.
01:04 I mean, at one point I was phoning Samaritans trying to get help.
01:08 I mean, they didn't answer, so I phoned victim support,
01:11 and luckily I had a really nice woman on the phone.
01:14 And then I got Catch 22 eventually,
01:17 which have been brilliant throughout this whole thing.
01:19 I can't afford a solicitor or anything.
01:21 If I can do it that way, I know other people can.
01:24 It's also getting the banks to realise that
01:26 just because you meet them in person doesn't mean it's just theft.
01:31 It is fraud, because they're lying about what they need the money for,
01:35 like he did to me.
01:37 They didn't take that into account at all.
01:39 And I had to take them to the financial ombudsman,
01:42 which was 18 months of back and forth, back and forth,
01:46 like them putting words in my mouth and, like, kind of lying.
01:51 It's just...it's been a lot.
01:54 I mean, you always want to believe that if they say they're in hospital unwell,
01:57 that they're telling the truth.
01:59 And I'd just lost someone really close to me.
02:02 My dad was really poorly at the time,
02:04 so I suppose I was in a bit more vulnerable state.
02:06 There were red flags.
02:08 I think I just thought I was helping someone in need
02:12 and trying to be a nice person
02:15 to help someone out who I thought was really poorly
02:19 and wasn't as poorly as they said they were.
02:22 I even showed, like, my friends his profile.
02:24 It was all very normal.
02:26 He said he had a normal job - operations manager at a dealership.
02:29 To me, that's a normal, run-of-the-mill job.
02:32 He didn't have that job.
02:34 I suppose I'd be a bit more judgy next time.
02:39 Like, I might question a bit more.
02:41 I suppose, yeah, I'd just delve deeper into them as a person
02:44 rather than almost taking their word for it.
02:47 If they say, "Oh, I work here,"
02:49 then you ask them where they work in a different way,
02:52 or, like, just kind of fact-checked, I suppose.
02:57 (sighs)