A fraudster who conned men into spending thousands of pounds to fund designer clothes, holidays and online bets has been jailed for seven years.
Model Gemma Kingsley, 50, targeted recent divorcees, and claimed she was due to inherit millions to convince them to lavish money on her.
She also used stolen or false card details to pay for fancy hotels, including a five-star resort in the Alps, Swindon Crown Court heard
“Your duplicity and brass neck is staggering,” the judge told her at sentencing.
“You are a con woman who traded on her charm, charisma and good looks to entice and ensnare victims without any regard to the trail of destruction being left behind in your wake.”
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Kingsley found her victims on dating sites, and the court was told the men ended up “hopelessly in love with her”
“They didn’t want to believe that her stories were the stuff of fantasy, even when they were being confronted with reality,” said prosecutor Barry McElduff KC
One of the victims lost more than £125,000, and was “mortified and humiliated” when his wedding to Kingsley fell through.
Mr McElduff said she quickly moved on to another man, using the same story that she was due to get as much as £80m from a relative’s will.
Kingsley ended up defrauding him of £30,000, and later claimed she was pregnant with twins.
Six months into the con, the man found photos on her phone of various bank and credit cards and called the police.
Judge Jason Taylor KC told Kingsley she had “manipulatively pulled whatever lever you thought necessary to extract as much as you could”, and called her a “financial predator always on the prowl for easy prey”.
€94,000 bill and fake Aussie accent
Among her other victims was a man whose card she used to pay a €94,000 (£81,000) bill at an alpine resort – for which she has been convicted of fraud in France.
She even conned her mother’s carer out of £990 to pay for a holiday they all took together.
On another occasion, Kingsley put on a male Australian accent to trick a finance company into paying a loan over the phone.
The lies did not stop when she was arrested. Kingsley claimed the men were infatuated with her, and out for revenge.
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In a victim impact statement, one man told the court it was “a deliberate decision by someone who I thought loved me. She deceived me mentally, emotionally and financially”.
Kingsley, of Beadnell in Northumberland, previously admitted four counts of fraud, six counts of theft, and three other fraud-related charges.
Her lawyer said she was “extremely sorry for her actions”.
“She had come out of a difficult relationship herself, and she had some mental health problems,” said Michael Gomulka.
“But none of that can possibly explain the sustained course of conduct she is to be sentenced for.”
