Model jailed for conning men found on dating sites into funding luxury lifestyle

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." 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.