He claimed he was ex-SAS and had millions in off -shore accounts

Price convinced victims and their elderly parents to hand over cash

He pretended he was terminally ill and needed expensive treatments

In fact Price was a penniless career ‘Walter Mitty’ criminal

PUBLISHED: 19:35, 21 May 2013 | UPDATED: 19:41, 21 May 2013

Jonathan Price, 41, posed as a wealthy businessman, weaving a tissue of lies including that he was an ex-SAS man, and that he was a friend of the late, exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky

A conman who duped a string of women into falling for him and handing over more than £170,000 after he met them on a website for ‘sugar daddies’ was jailed for seven years today.

Jonathan Price, 41, posed as a wealthy businessman, weaving a tissue of lies including that he was an ex-SAS man, and that he was a friend of the late, exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.

He also claimed to have a home in the exclusive Sandbanks area, where football boss Harry Redknapp lives.

He turned his victims’ lives upside down and even married one woman, and fathered her child.

With ‘extraordinary callousness’ the ‘Walter Mitty figure’ pretended he was dying and invented a friend who would email progress reports to one victim in a bid to convince her, the prosecution said.

After convincing them he had millions in offshore accounts, he managed to borrow many thousands from his victims and their ageing parents by claiming he had cash flow problems and that he would repay them once the issues were resolved.

But in fact Price was a penniless career criminal who would vanish after claiming to be terminally ill with a brain tumour and move in with another woman, who he had already been developing as a potential victim.

He met women online by using a ‘sugar daddies’ site which aimed to match beautiful women with wealthy men, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Price fleeced a florist in her 30s from the Bournemouth after beginning a relationship with her, then moving in with her parents and conning £24,000 out of them for life-prolonging cancer treatments he pretended he needed.

He then moved on to prey upon a London-based 38-year-old retail manager.

He duped her into letting him use her credit cards and within months she was left bankrupt, with a loss of around £20,000.

‘She has lost her flat, she had to declare herself bankrupt and she now lives with her mother,’ said Adrian Dent, prosecuting.

The court heard while he was with her, Price had started to target a chemist from County Durham to whom he proposed after charming her online.

They planned a £96,000 wedding at Rockliffe Hall Hotel near Darlington, then claimed to have high blood pressure in a bid to cover the fact the venue would not honour the booking when no payment was made.

Instead they married at Harrogate Register Office in front of just four people.

He met women online by using a ‘sugar daddies’ site which aimed to match beautiful women with wealthy men, Teesside Crown Court (pictured) heard

Though they picked out an expensive engagement ring from Graff’s jewellers in Bond Street which needed altering, no payment was made and she ended up with a totally different ring, probably fake.
He defrauded her out of £72,000 and her parents out of a further £7,000.

She had his baby last year. They have since divorced.

Businesses lost around £50,000 from his offending.

He previously pleaded guilty to 14 frauds and one count of theft, and it was said he would plan his next con while in jail for his last.

Price, whose latest address was near Darlington, would produce false bank statements to convince the women and their families he had a fortune abroad. That would reassure them he was a safe bet for a short loan.

He would then use that money to wine and dine his next victim, convincing them of his super-rich status.

He claimed to have a white Rolls Royce, to have been a Paratrooper and even in the SAS, the court heard.

His deceptions also included a businessman he tricked into becoming his personal financial manager, an estate agents and a boat dealer.

A Leeds garage was tricked into loaning him a car when he placed orders for a £70,000 Audi A8 with extras and a £44,000 A5 for his wife, after showing a sales rep he had made money transfers on a laptop.

Price also made a series of offers for exclusive homes including a £5 million property near Harrogate.
His name now appears on the waltermittyhunt.com site which claims to publicise people who falsely claim to have been in the services.

Mr Dent said: ‘The defendant is a serial fraudster and a thief.’

His ‘deeply ingrained’ desire to offend and lack of conscience meant he groomed vulnerable people – typically single women in their 30s, the prosecution said.

The latest offences were committed between 2010 and 2012 but his seven previous convictions for dishonesty date back 20 years and he has been jailed four times.

The total loss for his victims was £172,533, Mr Dent said.

In his act of being seriously ill, Price would shiver, vomit, stutter and claimed to suffer terrible headaches, Mr Dent said.

Price, who had a bushy beard and wore dark glasses for the hearing, has not had contact with his parents, who live in Lincolnshire, since 2000.

He was arrested in May last year after his ‘deeply suspicious’ parents-in-law reported him to the police.

Peter Sabiston, defending, has told the court previously: ‘He is unsure because of the lies he has told, what is true and what is fantasy. He does seem to lead a life of fantasy.’

His barrister told the court today he realised he may never see his child again, and accepts he has ‘damaged some people very badly and caused a lot of hardship to people he was very close to’.

Mr Sabiston added: ‘He is a man who does have that Walter Mitty lifestyle and he has used other people’s money to fund it.’

via Seven years for conman, 41, who stole £170,000 out of women he met on ‘Sugar Daddies’ dating website | Mail Online.

Researchers claim that the zolpidem in some sleeping pills enhances the brain’s ability to build-up memories

They say the findings could help in the development of treatments for Alzheimer’s and dementia

Contradicts previous research which found the drug may actually CAUSE memory loss

By EMMA INNES

PUBLISHED: 18:09, 13 March 2013 | UPDATED: 18:11, 13 March 2013

Taking sleeping tablets could help improve your memory, according to controversial new research.

A team of researchers claim to have discovered the mechanism that enables the brain to build-up memories – and say they found that a commonly prescribed sleeping tablet containing zolpidem enhances this process.

They hope the discovery could lead to new sleep therapies that could improve memory for ageing adults and those with dementia, Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.

The findings contradict a wealth of previous research that has suggested that sleeping pills can have devastating effects on health, including memory.

Taking sleeping tablets could help improve your memory, according to new research

The new research claims to have demonstrated, for the first time, the critical role that sleep spindles play in consolidating memory in the hippocampus.

Sleep spindles are bursts of brain activity that last for a second or less during sleep.

Earlier research found a link between sleep spindles and the consolidation of memories that depend on the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is involved in memory forming, organising, and storing.

The research team say they showed that the drugs could significantly improve that process, far more than sleep alone.

Lead author of the study, Dr Sara Mednick, a psychologist from the University of California Riverside, said: ‘We found that a very common sleep drug can be used to increase memory.

‘This is the first study to show you can manipulate sleep to improve memory.

‘It suggests sleep drugs could be a powerful tool to tailor sleep to particular memory disorders.’

They found that zolpidem significantly increased the density of sleep spindles and improved memory consolidation

But previous research has suggested that sleeping pills taken by more than a million Britons significantly increase the risk of dementia.

Pensioners who used benzodiazepines – which include temazepam and diazepam – are 50 per cent more likely to succumb to the devastating illness, a Harvard University study found.

They work by changing the way messages are transmitted to the brain, which induces a calming effect but scientists believe that at the same time they may be interfering with chemicals in the brain known as neurotransmitters, which may be causing dementia.

The new study tested normal sleepers, who were given varying doses of sleeping pills and placebos, allowing several days between doses to allow the drugs to leave their bodies.

Researchers monitored their sleep, measured sleepiness and mood after napping, and used several tests to evaluate their memory.

They found that zolpidem significantly increased the density of sleep spindles and improved verbal memory consolidation.

Dr Mednick said: ‘Zolpidem enhanced sleep spindles in healthy adults producing exceptional memory performance beyond that seen with sleep alone or sleep with the comparison drug.

The researchers hope that their findings will help in the development of new treatments for Alzheimer’s and dementia

‘The results set the stage for targeted treatment of memory impairments as well as the possibility of exceptional memory improvement above that of a normal sleep period.’

Dr Mednick also hopes to study the impact of zolpidem on older adults who experience poor memory because individuals with Alzheimer’s, dementia and schizophrenia are known experience decreases in sleep spindles.

Dr Mednick, who began studying sleep in the early 2000s, says sleep is a very new field of research and its importance is generally not taught in medical schools.

‘We know very little about it,’ she said.

‘We do know that it affects behaviour, and we know that sleep is integral to a lot of disorders with memory problems.

‘We need to integrate sleep into medical diagnoses and treatment strategies. This research opens up a lot of possibilities.’

via Sleeping pills could actually IMPROVE your memory, claims controversial new research | Mail Online.

By SHERON BOYLE

A massive stroke wiped out every memory of Charlie Wilson’s life from the day he was born

Had he reflected on it as he went to bed on June 12, 2008, Charlie Wilson would have agreed his life was pretty good.

A successful career as a self-employed finance director in charge of multi-million-pound deals had provided his family with an extremely comfortable lifestyle.

There were plenty of holidays abroad and Charlie was also able to enjoy the luxury of up to four rounds of golf a week and the bonhomie of many friends and acquaintances.

Less than 12 hours later, however, the 45-year-old’s life had changed for ever — a massive stroke wiped out every memory of his life from the day he was born.

He couldn’t recall his wedding day or the births of his two young daughters.

He remembered nothing of the two decades of his work as a bank finance manager — nor his favourite foods, TV programmes, or his pals.

He didn’t know who he was.

Even worse, Charlie, who lives in Kintore, Aberdeenshire, didn’t recognise his family.

When he came to, the day after his stroke, standing beside his bed was Jackie, his wife of 20 years.

‘I looked at this woman and she said, “It’s me, I am your wife Jackie”,’ recalls Charlie. ‘But I had no idea who she was.’

The following day Jackie brought their daughters, Chloe, then seven, and Sophie, two, to see him in hospital.

‘I looked at them and thought they must be mine, but I didn’t have a clue who they were or know their names.
‘The girls gingerly walked into my room and as I looked at them, Jackie had told me several times their names and ages.
‘Chloe could tell from my blank expression that I didn’t recognise her. “Hello, come here and give me a hug,” I said to her. Jackie gently nudged her forward and she fell into my arms.
‘It was strange, weird as I cuddled this little girl. She must have felt as nervous as me.

‘Jackie looked on quietly and I could see she was holding back tears. It was devastating not to know my own children.
‘As they drove home, Chloe said to Jackie: “Daddy doesn’t know who I am, does he Mummy?” Even now, four years later, she’s still upset by that,’ says Charlie.
As well losing his memory, Charlie had lost all feeling and sensation down his right side, from face to feet, as well as the sight in the right side of both eyes.
Memory loss is a common effect of stroke, although the degree and effects depends on which area of the brain is damaged, explains Professor Alan Sunderland, a neuropsychologist at the University of Nottingham and spokesperson for the Stroke Association.

Charlie couldn’t recall his wedding day or the births of his two young daughters
‘Most stroke patients suffer from short-term memory loss — they become forgetful about recent events as distant memory is better preserved,’ he says. ‘Charlie’s experience, while rare, is far from unheard of.’
The blood clot that had caused Charlie’s stroke had formed in his ankle, which could have been triggered by something as simple as a knock to the foot — like thousands of Britons, Charlie had an undiagnosed hole in his heart, which meant that the clot was then able to travel to his brain.
Charlie, now 49, would say he had a busy work life before his stroke — Jackie, 46, a secretary, would describe it as stressful.
As well as running his finance business, the couple had also owned a busy pub for four years.
For Charlie, 16-hour work days were the norm.
‘I was a workaholic and would oversee the pub while doing my financial work,’ he says.
‘I rarely ate at home, eating irregular hours and fast food.
‘I was nearly 17 stone and although I am 6ft 1ins, I was overweight.’
After Charlie sold the pub in 2007, he began playing golf up to four times a week and had a handicap of four.
‘I was fit, played rugby, never smoked but was a big guy and drank too much — 40 to 50 units a week,’ he recalls.
‘I’d not felt ill or anything, but it’s fair to say my old life ended that night I went to bed.’
When Charlie woke the next day, the room seemed to be spinning.
He managed to stagger to the bathroom, but slurring nonsensical words and falling about as his right leg became useless, something was clearly seriously wrong. Jackie rang the GP, who came straight around — when she saw Charlie she rang 999.
Charlie was unconscious by the time he arrived at the hospital, where he was given a clot-busting injection.
As Dr Alastair Cozens, consultant in rehabilitation medicine at Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen, who treated Charlie, explains: ‘Usually a stroke kills by the clot landing in the brain area that is critical to breathing, so treating a patient within two or three hours of a stroke is vital to limit the damage caused.’
But when Charlie came to, it was clear the damage had been devastating. Jackie had been warned that some or all of Charlie’s memory could have been affected.
After a stroke, memory usually improves over the first 12 to 18 months.
‘We cannot grow new brain cells,’ explains Dr Cozens.
‘But in the first four to six weeks afterwards, some of the brain cells that weren’t destroyed but which have been in a state of shock begin to wake up — they gradually link up with other working brain cells.
‘Improvements can continue throughout a person’s life.’
After undergoing major speech therapy and physio, by the time he went home, ten weeks after his stroke, Charlie was able to make a cup of tea, a simple meal, as well as do all his basic care. But even four years on, the physical effects linger.
‘I can’t tell if my right nostril runs or feel a tear from my right eye,’ he says.
He’s had to learn to write with his left hand as he has no feeling in his right; he’s also lost his sense of taste and the sight in his right eye, so cannot drive.
But the memory loss has perhaps been even more debilitating than the physical changes.

‘My relationship with Jackie is a new one – but I can’t recall what my old one was like,’ said Charlie
When he first went home, Charlie went through the paperwork on his desk to help bring back memories — but there was nothing.
‘I couldn’t drive so I had to be repeatedly shown the route from my home to the bus stop and try to remember the bus number,’ he says.
‘I had to accept what people told me — facts about me, who they were, what I liked to do. Every part of my past has had to be told or taught to me.’
Even so, there are still significant gaps. ‘Jackie and I have pored over the wedding album to try to jolt my memory, but I cannot remember a thing about the day,’ says Charlie.
After four frustrating months at home, he accepted that it was pointless to dwell on the past — he had to look to the future.
‘We still had a mortgage to pay and the girls to raise as we were living off our dwindling savings,’ he says.
‘Though my self-esteem and confidence were rock bottom, there was no point getting frustrated or depressed and I had to make the best of what I had.
‘I was realistic that I knew I would never be the man I was. I would have to start afresh. But I was grateful to be here — if I thought any other way, it would drive me insane.
‘Apart from Chloe reminding me I didn’t know her, my lowest point was when I came out of hospital — I was a shell compared with the alpha male I had been.
‘But I knew I needed to provide for my family and that was my ultimate aim.
‘But while I focused on that, those early months were tough and lonely on Jackie — she had lost the man she married and I, in turn, had become as useless and demanding as a third child.
‘It actually made my relationship with my wife and children stronger because I have had to relook at everything.
‘I was working all hours before the stroke, then I was at home where I got to know my family again. I had to learn how to love them, too — because I didn’t know them. It was hard doing that and it concentrates the mind.
‘My relationship with Jackie is a new one — but I can’t recall what my old one was like! Jackie would probably say I am now a better husband and father. But, of course, she gets upset that I can no longer share our memories.’
And Charlie’s social life has also changed.
‘Before I was a bonhomie type of guy and would chat and have a pint with anyone.
‘Now, my circle of friends and contacts has got much smaller and my life is a lot less demanding.’
He is also much healthier and drinking no more than ten pints a week.
To help his rehabilitation, Charlie attended the Work Ahead Project, run by the charity Momentum Scotland, and funded by the National Lottery, which helps brain-injured people return to work and improve their independence.
After a year, Charlie started working as a volunteer for the charity, doing their paperwork.
‘It got me back into using a computer — I’d relearnt the alphabet as I read bedtime books to Sophie,’ he says.
‘Using a computer didn’t faze me either. I picked up that skill pretty quickly.’
As Professor Sunderland explains: ‘Stoke patients can forget how they learned such skills but still know how to do them.
‘I have seen a skilled plumber who has had a stroke repair a boiler — but what he can’t do is remember how or where he learnt to do that.’
Charlie was then offered voluntary work at Aberdeen University’s finance department. This led to part-time paid work and then, in July 2011, he was offered a full-time post as a research grant co-ordinator.
His short-term memory is still patchy, so he relies on lists and notes, while his oldest true memory dates from 2008 — the day he had the stroke.
‘I used to be sorting out multi-million-pound deals, now everything is in Jackie’s name and she gives me £10 a day — and I am happy with that,’ he says.
‘I don’t take anything for granted or too seriously. Jackie has been brilliant — I couldn’t have got where I am without her.
‘It’s been a tough few years but I could sink or swim — and having two daughters to think of — I swam!’ he laughs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2288082/Man-forgot-entire-life-When-stroke-hit-Charlie-45-erased-ALL-memories–turned-family-hed-adored-strangers.html#ixzz2NbVUZXoi

PUBLISHED: 04:57, 15 March 2013 | UPDATED: 06:27, 15 March 2013

Brain scans now allow researchers to know exactly what a person is imagining.

The latest breakthrough comes after scientists used brain scans to decode images directly from the brain.

Researchers have been able to put together what numbers people have seen, the memory a person is recalling, and even reconstruct videos of what a person has watched.

Read my mind: New advances in brain scans let scientists see what you are imagining

‘We are trying to understand the physical mechanisms that allow us to have an inner world, and a part of that is how we represent other people in our mind,’ said Cornell University cognitive neuroscientist Nathan Spreng.

Spreng’s team gave 19 volunteers descriptions of four imaginary people.

These characters had different personalities half being agreeable and cooperative and half being cold and aloof.

Half were described as outgoing and social and half were depicted as shy and inhibited.

Scientists matched the genders of these characters to each volunteer giving them names like Mike, Chris, Dave, or Nick, or Ashely, Sarah, Nicole, or Jenny for the women.

Imagine: Volunteers were described different characters then asked to picture them responding to different social stimuli

The volunteer’s brains were then scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The technology measures brain activity by changes in blood flow.

Volunteers were then asked to picture how the characters might react in in different scenarios, such as if they saw a homeless veteran asking for change or if they were at a bar and someone else spilled a drink.

‘Humans are social creatures, and the social world is a complex place,’ Spreng told Business Insider. ‘A key aspect to navigating the social world is how we represent others.’

Brain activity in picturing each personality was linked to a unique pattern of brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex.

‘This is the first study to show that we can decode what people are imagining,’ Spreng said.

A cure: Research found activity in a part of the brain also linked to disorders that inhibit social interaction and could lead to new treatment

That area of the brain helps people deduce traits about others and the findings suggest it’s also the region where personality models are encoded, assembled, and updated.

‘The scope of this is incredible when you think of all the people you meet over the course of your life and are able to remember. Each one probably has its own unique representation in the brain,’ Spreng said. ‘This representation can be modified as we share experiences and learn more about each other, and plays into how we imagine future events with others unfolding.’

The area is also linked to autism and disorders that inhibit people in social interactions.

People with these disorders may not be able to build accurate personality models of other people.

These advances could someday help treat these disorders.

via Brain scan breakthrough show researches just what you’re thinking about and could lead to treatment for disorders like autism | Mail Online.

By Smitha Mundasad

BBC News

Lara Bradley, a trainee magician who is now making more use of her right hand

Ten children in cloaks and hats are tying knots in rope, seemingly at the flick of a wrist.

They are taking part in a series of pilot experiments conjured up by magicians, therapists and researchers at Guy’s Hospital London.

All the children have hemiplegia – a weakening or paralysis of one side of their body.

And they are hoping to pick up tricks from magicians of the world renowned Magic Circle to help refine the movement of their hands.

The Breathe Magic camp involves 60 hours of intensive training over ten days.

“If I hold a really big ball like a football I can hold it fantastically…. like a guy who has a a normal hand”

Jack Cardwell, aged 8

Magic trainee

Lara Bradley is one of the trainee magicians. She is 11 and about to start secondary school.

She is keen to be able to pick up healthy snacks from the top shelves at the shop on her way home – something she had difficulty doing independently before camp started.

Red ball trick

But now she finds it much easier to reach up and grip even heavy objects and put them in her shopping basket.

The magic involved was a red ball trick which she demonstrates with the flourish of an accomplished magician.

She plucks a ball seemingly out of thin air, and then rolling it around in her palm it appears to multiply.

Practising this by turning the ball around in her hand over and over again, has helped her build up strength in her hand and made it easier to grip things, she says.

And the stretching movements involved in a rope trick have helped her use her arm to get things from high shelves.

Jack, aged 8, is now able to pick up his friend’s bike.

Continue reading the main story

Hemiplegia

Is a weakness and lack of control or paralysis affecting one side of the body

It can result from an injury to the brain before, during or soon after birth

1 in 4000 children in the UK are born with hemiplegia

Other children acquire hemiplegia through childhood strokes and accidents affecting the brain

He said: “One of the things that magic camp helped me with was my grasp…. If I hold a really big ball like a football I can hold it fantastically…. like a guy who has a a normal hand.”

‘Using both hands’

Breathe Magic Camps are put together by Breathe Arts Health Research and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, designed in collaboration with Magic Circle magicians, therapists, clinicians and researchers.

Working together, magicians and occupational therapists came up with specially adapted tricks which incorporate within them the rehabilitation exercises therapists often ask children with hemiplegia to do.

“Breathe Magic camp is about learning to use two hands, because a lot of the things we do in everyday life need two hands.

“An example is using a knife and fork – it may be quite acceptable to ask someone to help you with that as a child with hemiplegia.

“But if you are a little bit older and on your first date, you are not going to want to ask your date to cut up your food for you,” says Amarlie Moore, occupational therapist at the Evelina Children’s Hospital, London.

Many children are born with hemiplegia, so for children who are 11 years old repeating the same exercises for years over and over again can become a little boring, she says.

Jack’s dad, Will Cardwell, agrees. “As a parent you can get your children to do exercises… but it is boring and it is very difficult for them to stay motivated over a prolonged time.

“Magic camp is just fantastic because it is fun to do.”

Dr Dido Green, reader in rehabilitation at Oxford Brookes University is looking at the evidence behind the project.

She would like to see if the 60 hours of training at the camp lead the children to move their hands with better synchrony.

Jack and Will Cardwell explain some of the differences the 10 days of magic training have made to them

In this pilot study she is looking at the speed at which information from the nerves gets to the muscles in the hands then combining this with data on the timing of the movement of both hands, by using brain imaging techniques and movement studies.

‘Impressing people’

Data collected before the first camps in 2010 show that before magic therapy, the children were only able to perform 25% of daily activities, such as opening a bottle, using their two hands.

“At the end of the camp they were able to perform 93% of activities independently, using two hands,” says Dr Green, who used a standard list of everyday tasks in her measurements.

The team are now collating the data they have collected on 43 children and will be studying the outcomes in detail.

Karin Bishop from the College of Occupational Therapists says: “Using magic as occupational therapy has real potential to benefit children with a range of motor conditions such as cerebral palsy.

“It is the perfect medium to improve children’s motor skills, functional ability and confidence. It is important that there will be clear measurable outcomes from this work and we look forward to seeing it progress.”

For Lara, the camp also allowed her to meet other people with hemiplegia.

And when her training finished she had some unexpected tricks up her sleeve.

“The thing I enjoyed most after magic camp was going back to school and impressing people. Before I found it difficult. I would show them something I could do and they would say ‘oh I can already do that’.

“Now I show them a magic trick and they are like, ‘wow, how did you do that?!’ And I’ve never felt that kind of pride..”

via BBC News – ‘Magic therapy helps improve use of hands with hemiplegia’.

By TOM KELLY

PUBLISHED: 16:57, 19 December 2012 | UPDATED: 08:40, 20 December 2012

A Sotheby’s executive yesterday told how she felt ‘violated’ after being seduced out of £800,000 by a benefits-claiming conman posing as a Goldman Sachs billionaire.

Harvard-educated Nina Siegenthaler, 37, fell for the sophisticated charms and ‘A-list acting skills’ of former Charterhouse schoolboy and Cambridge University drop-out Alistair Stewart.

She branded him a sociopath and said she had believed his ‘countless lies’ about being a hedge fund manager with properties worldwide.

Victim: Nina Siegenthaler, a Sotheby’s executive, fell in love with Stewart before he defrauded her

Smooth criminal: Cambridge dropout Alistair Stewart seduced a wealthy woman out of more than £600,000 by posing as a retired Goldman Sachs billionaire

She gave him her £630,000 life savings to invest, plus £154,000 for him to rent a luxury home for them in the Caribbean.

In reality, Stewart was orchestrating his fraud from a council flat in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, where he lived for most of the time on incapacity benefits.

He blew almost all her cash in four months on a £55,000 Mercedes, private jets, stays at the Ritz and Hyde Park Tower hotels, chauffeur-driven shopping trips to Harrods and jaunts in helicopters.

Yesterday, as 53-year-old Stewart was jailed for five-and-a-half years at the Old Bailey, Miss Siegenthaler called him a ‘cunning predator’.

She said: ‘He is one of the most intelligent, charismatic and seemingly generous people I have met.

‘He is also a cunning predator,  a man without conscience or moral compass. His ultimate aim is not to rob, though he certainly will do that, but to control and manipulate.’

She pre-recorded the message which she felt unable to deliver in person in court because she was still too ‘shocked and traumatised’ to see him in the flesh.

She said: ‘His insatiable desire to dupe leaves a path of destruction in its wake.

‘I experienced a profound sense of violation on many levels.’

Stewart targeted her by pretending to be interested in buying two properties worth more than £10million in the Caribbean tax haven of the Turks and Caicos Islands where Miss Siegenthaler is vice-president of Sotheby’s International Realty.

After catching her at a vulnerable time during the breakdown of her marriage to the father of her young daughter, he spent six months grooming her on Skype, during which time she fell in love with him.

Luxury: Hartling House, a 9,000-square foot villa on the island of Providenciales, which Stewart, posing as a retired Goldman Sachs millionaire, pretended he wanted to buy

She also agreed to let him ‘invest’ her life savings after he said her daughter’s future would be in jeopardy if she refused.

After receiving the cash, he flew to visit her – on a £4,800 first class plane ticket – and bought her a £31,000 watch as a gift.

She described him as ‘completely convincing’, adding: ‘I never met someone who could fabricate so proficiently.

‘He told detailed stories about his alleged tenure with Goldman Sachs. None of it was true.’ He also invented a wife who had tragically died, a fictional daughter, and lied that he  had leukaemia.

But after finally becoming suspicious, she investigated and discovered he had previously been convicted of four charges of fraud, including fleecing a 73-year-old woman out of £27,000.

When she confronted him he told her: ‘I lie as easily as I breathe.’

Nathaniel Rudolf, defending, said Stewart had repaid the £92,470 that was left of the money.

Home: The housing association block of flats in Burgess Hill, West Sussex where Stewart lived while pretending to run a hedge fund in Switzerland

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2250606/He-left-feeling-violated-says-Sothebys-boss-conned-800-000-lover-posing-Goldman-Sachs-billionaire.html#ixzz2FaNxcuMF
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

via He has left me feeling violated, says Sotheby’s boss conned out of £800,000 by lover posing as a Goldman Sachs billionaire | Mail Online.

by John Andrews – Mail Online

We feel so stupid: how could my wife and I have been conned out of more than £7,000 by one phone conversation? The answer is that the scam was brilliant in design and execution.

It began with a phone call after dinner on a  Friday night. My wife answered the phone and the caller announced herself as ‘DCI Jane Seymour of the Serious Fraud Office’. 

The inspector was polite and matter of fact. She asked my wife if she had been in the Apple Store on Regent Street that day or the one in Covent Garden? My wife replied that she hadn’t. 

Deception: The fraudster pretended to be DCI and used a clever technical trick and ‘brilliant’ acting skills to con her victims

But DCI Seymour reported that someone had bought expensive items from these stores using my wife’s debit card — and the transactions had been within four minutes of each other.

Anyone who knows central London knows it is almost impossible to get from Regent Street to Covent Garden in such a short time — something was definitely amiss.

The inspector then broke the news that someone had cloned my wife’s card and was using it to make major purchases. Panicked  by this information, my wife called me over to the phone and asked me to speak to  DCI Seymour. 

The inspector explained that the Serious Fraud Office had been monitoring Apple Stores, conscious that the launch of the latest iPhone would make it a target for criminals.

‘Do you have all your cards with you?’ she asked. Yes. ‘Are you sure?’ Yes.

In the background I could hear hubbub that made me think of TV’s The Bill or Prime Suspect: the faint sound of people chatting, the sense that DCI Seymour was at one desk and other detectives were hard at work on the case, too. 

Having established that neither my wife nor I had been to the Apple Store, she asked if I had noticed any strange transactions on my cards. No, I replied. 

Trick: The con-artist instructed the couple to phone but stayed on the line so the call went straight back through to her

‘But we’re worried,’ said the inspector. ‘We think all your cards have been compromised. It may be that someone has hacked into the National Database. We need to block all the cards now.’

Inwardly, I shivered. Does this mean identity theft? ‘Yes, it could be. You’ll need to take part in a police investigation later. But we need to block your cards first.’ 

Immediately, I was suspicious. Why would she want all our cards? Was DCI Seymour who she said she was? How could we know she was really working for the Serious Fraud Office?

Her ANSWER turned us from cautious sceptics into credulous fools. ‘Call 999 and check me out,’ she urged. So we did. I put the phone down, picked it up again and dialled 999. The dialling tone was normal, the phone rang and the response was as prompt and efficient as a law-abiding citizen could wish for. 

Which service did I want? The police. I’ll put you through. When a constable picked up the phone, I asked: ‘Do you have a DCI Jane Seymour of the Serious Fraud Squad?’

‘Yes, I’ll connect you.’ DCI Seymour picked up the phone — her identity verified. In fishing parlance, we were hooked — and were about to be sunk. 

‘We can have your cards blocked immediately,’ said DCI Seymour to reassure us. ‘New cards can be delivered to your house in three working days, or five for the foreign cards. But first we’ll need your PIN numbers.’ That should, of course, have rung alarm bells. 

How many times have we all been told, ‘Never, never give your PIN number to anyone. Your bank will never ask for it’? We hesitated — and this is where DCI Seymour scored again. ‘Don’t tell me the codes,’ she said. ‘Tap them into the phone and they will be sent straight to our technical team.’ 

And so, stupidly, but trusting that the digital wizardry was in our interest, we did. And, as we later discovered, using specialist technology, she recorded the numbers.

Con: The scam depended on the couple believing the woman when she said their cards had been cloned

By this time, we had been on the phone for at least an hour, in a state of shock and growing despair over the hassles that apparently came with ID theft. 

DCI Seymour kept reassuring us that all would be well. ‘Are you OK? Do you have enough money for the weekend? We can get you emergency funds of £300 delivered to you by 3pm tomorrow. We’ll debit it from your HSBC account and I’ll call you again tomorrow at noon.’

It was all so comforting. Her  manner was solicitous, reassuring and practical. When I asked my wife to pour me a glass of wine, DCI Seymour heard me on the other end of the phone. She laughed and said she could do with one, too — but not on duty. 

Stressful call: The couple were completely taken in and their shock and despair grew as the conversation went on

And when she said she would send a courier round to pick up our compromised cards, it seemed so reasonable. ‘Put them in a sealed envelope inside another envelope, and don’t tell the driver what it’s for. We’ll contact him ourselves.’ 

Almost as if we had been hypnotised, we did as we were told. ‘The driver’s on his way. He’ll be with you shortly.’ 

He was and, within minutes, as we later discovered, our accounts were being plundered, mostly, it seems, by withdrawals from ATM machines at Euston station. Meanwhile, DCI Seymour kept me on the line, supposedly keeping us abreast of the activities of the criminals who had cloned our cards. 

‘There’s been a withdrawal in South London. Someone’s at Euston. We’re watching the CCTV. There’s another withdrawal . . .’ 

On and on it went, as my wife and I became increasingly tired and desperate, but DCI Seymour kept us hanging on, saying: ‘Don’t put the phone down. Stay on the line.’

I realise now, of course, that this was to stop us ringing the banks of our own accord. At around  midnight, my wife collapsed into bed, but DCI Seymour kept me on the phone until 1.30am. 

I had been speaking to her for two-and-a-half hours. To say we slept badly is an understatement. We tossed and turned, fretting about the money being siphoned out of our accounts. 

Breakfast and the cold light of day brought me to my senses. ‘Perhaps, I should call 999 again, just to check,’ I thought.

‘Hypnotised’: The couple did everything ‘DCI Seymour’ asked of them after they were taken in by the con

The operator who answered was annoyed. She told me my case was not an emergency and I should dial 101 for my local police service. With mounting anxiety, I explained that I had dialled 999 the night before and that my call had been put through to an officer. 

‘We have no record of a call,’ she said. ‘Ah, hang on a moment. I’ll talk to a colleague.’

And then, with the help of bona fide officers, the truth about the scam was revealed. 

It all hinged on a clever technical trick. Quite simply, if you put the phone down, but the other party does not, they stay on the line. 

Even if you dial a new number, you remain connected to the original caller. So when I dialled 999, it went back to ‘DCI Jane Seymour’. She must have had an accomplice posing as the emergency services operator and, as easy as that, we fell into their trap. 

Hi-tech: Specialist technology allowed the fraudster to record the pin numbers as they were entered into the phone

The Payments Council, responsible for card security, says there has been a three-fold increase this year in incidents of this scam. In the first quarter of 2012, an estimated £750,000 was lost. In total, we lost around £7,000 of our savings. 

The police — the real police — have been sympathetic and tell us that the con is targeted at the well-to-do and the elderly who may not be as techno-savvy as younger account holders. Mercifully, most of the money has since been credited back to us. The banks conceded we were victims of an understandable gullibility. 

Initially, only French bank BNP failed to reimburse us, but eventually (after an anguished protest on my part), it, too, paid up.

Naturally, my wife and I feel embarrassed and a little sheepish at having been fooled so easily. 

In our defence, I can only say that the woman who played ‘DCI Jane Seymour’ was a brilliant actress and this particular bit of financial con-artistry was new to us. 

We are lucky the damage done wasn’t permanent and that most of the money has been returned. Others may not be so lucky. 

I may feel shame-faced about  having been so easily deceived, but let my gullibility be a very modern cautionary tale to others

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249752/A-999-credit-card-scam-cost-thousands.html#ixzz2FQKPUtPU
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