Romance fraudster jailed after conning men into funding her expensive lifestyle

A romance fraudster who conned men into spending tens of thousands of pounds and funding her expensive lifestyle has been jailed for more than seven years.

Over four years, model Gemma Kingsley, 50, wove a web of lies with several victims.

She tricked men into relationships with her and informed them she was soon to inherit millions from her late grandfather, leveraging that to compel them to spend huge sums of money on her behalf, including on a planned wedding.

On other occasions, she stole or used false bank card details to pay thousands of pounds for hotel stays, including at a five-star Alpine resort in France, Swindon Crown Court heard.

At a previous hearing, Kingsley, of Beadnell, Northumberland, pleaded guilty to six counts of theft, four counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of using a false instrument with intent that it will be accepted as genuine, and one count of being in possession of an article for use in fraud.

Jailing Kingsley, Judge Jason Taylor KC told her: “Your duplicity and brass neck is staggering.

“You are a con woman who traded on her charm, charisma and good looks to entice and ensnare victims without any regard to the trial of destruction being left behind in your wake.”

The judge went on: “Blinded by your greed, you persistently and manipulatively pulled whatever lever you thought necessary to extract as much as you could to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

“Your principal lever was emotional, convincing men that their sincere feelings for you were reciprocated.

“Two were recently divorced and, to some degree, more vulnerable and exposed because of that.

“Telling them and others that you were due to inherit a fortune, worth as much as £80 million at one point.

“You spun an intricate web of lies, including false documents, bank appointments and multimillion-pound house viewings, to add credibility to your claims.

“The image you portrayed was so fantastical that it’s not hard to envisage how your victims were taken in by it because, bluntly, most people are not that divorced from reality.

“Your lack of remorse was only matched by your guile in squeezing every last penny from one victim before moving on to the next.

“You were a financial predator always on the prowl for easy prey.”

The judge added: “Over a period of years you were a well-spoken, educated and glamorous serial fraudster, fleecing unsuspecting suitors and anyone else you could take advantage of, unwilling or unable to control your greed irrespective of the impact on others.

“Your methods were selfish, orchestrated, sophisticated and cruel.

“When the police caught up with you your denials were vehement, portraying yourself as the victim, saying that your high profile as a model exposed you to stalking and harassment and how your allegers were either infatuated or revenge fantasists.

“It was yet another pack of lies.”

The court heard Kingsley targeted recently divorced men through online dating sites to fund her lavish lifestyle of expensive clothes, holidays and betting sites.

Barry McElduff KC, prosecuting, said: “They were the victims of a sophisticated romance fraud committed over a significant period of time.”

He said the two principal victims had met Kingsley on dating sites, adding: “They were, to use my words, both hopelessly in love with her. The defendant traded on her good looks to perpetuate her deception.

“It was perhaps because they loved her that they didn’t want to believe that her stories were the stuff of fantasy, even when they were being confronted with reality.”

One of the men lost more than £125,000 and was left “mortified and humiliated” after being forced to cancel his wedding to Kingsley when the lavish venue pulled out.

Mr McElduff said on another occasion Kingsley made a phone call to a finance company impersonating a male Australian accent to dupe them into paying a loan.

After splitting from the first victim, she quickly moved onto the second man – spinning the same web of lies about a multimillion-pound inheritance.

“He was later to describe it as a ‘cognitive sea sickness’, that the defendant was telling him that everything was going to be fine, but his eyes and mind was telling him something different,” Mr McElduff said

After six months, he found photos on her phone of different bank and credit cards, realised she was involved in fraud and contacted the police.

After defrauding the man of £30,000, Kingsley told him she was pregnant with his twins, which he felt was an “entrapment”.

Among Kingsley’s other victims was a man she met online whose bank card details she used to pay for £365 of Ocado shopping.

She also used his card to pay a 94,000 euro bill at a five-star alpine resort, for which she has been convicted of fraud in France.

Kingsley also used the bank card of a fourth man she met online to pay an £878 Airbnb bill.

A woman who was an acquittance of Kingsley fell victim too when her bank card was used to spend £874 at Waitrose.

The defendant defrauded her own mother’s carer of £990 to pay for a holiday they all took together at Cromhall Farm, near Chippenham.

Another victim was a family law King’s Counsel who was owed £12,000 for legal work.

Kingsley also provided false documents to a car dealership over the purchase of a £120,000 Porsche 911 and to a law firm for the purchase of a multimillion-pound house.

One of the men said in a victim impact statement that Kingsley had left him “humiliated, mortified and embarrassed” after he was forced to cancel their wedding.

“I feel used and manipulated and I feel violated and betrayed,” he said.

“It’s a deliberate decision by someone who I thought loved me. She deceived me mentally, emotionally and financially.”

Another said: “I regret profoundly that I trusted Gemma Kingsley and it has impacted my trust in other people.

“I had previously described this as cognitive sea sickness but now I know it was gaslighting.”

Michael Gomulka, defending, said Kingsley had no explanation for her crimes.

“She cannot really explain it, other than she barely recognises herself, but she fully comprehends the harm her actions have had to the victims,” he said.

“She is extremely sorry for her actions. I do not offer on her behalf any excuses.

“She had come out of a difficult relationship herself and she had some mental health problems, but none of that can possibly explain the sustained course of conduct she is to be sentenced for.”

Kingsley will now face proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Detective Constable Chris Hemns, from Wiltshire Police, said afterwards: “Kingsley is a manipulative, cold-hearted individual, whose actions over several years have left multiple victims with significant emotional anxiety and long-term mental and financial struggles.

“She has continuously lied through the investigation process, denying any wrongdoing until the final moment before the trial was due to take place.

“I have no doubt that she would have continued to offend, continued to defraud others out of thousands of pounds and continued to cause significant trauma to individuals had our investigation not commenced.

“Even when she was served with a court summons, her first question to officers was ‘how did you find me?’.”