Lover’s fraud: ‘I feel completely violated’

A Nelson man defrauded by a former lover he believed was dying says he feels ‘‘completely violated’’ by her elaborate scam.

Stacey Anne Webb used detailed, fictitious stories of gang rape, terminal illness and imaginary characters to deceive and defraud 56-year-old street vendor Brendan Santorini.

Webb, 26, was sentenced in the Nelson District Court yesterday having been found guilty of obtaining control of a credit card for pecuniary advantage by deception.

Judge Chris Tuohy sentenced Webb to 240 hours’ community work.

‘‘This was not just a one-off trick,’’ the judge said of her offending. ’’This was a deception which continued for many months.’’

Webb was 19 when she met Santorini in December, 2009.

She was having difficulty finding accommodation and Santorini agreed to let her move into his Atawhai home.

A sexual relationship started between them. That’s when the stories started.

Webb told Santorini she had been raped by four skinheads in Motueka.

Police have no record of such a report being made.

As as a result, she said she had a severe infection and developed a terminal illness.

Webb told Santorini she was dying and scheduled for life-saving surgery, but it kept being delayed.

She also said she had a $400,000 life insurance policy and created a fake will claiming to leave Santorini $250,000.

To corroborate her stories, Webb invented characters. There was her ‘‘uncle Tony’’, a Christchurch lawyer, a Nelson detective called ’’David’’, and doctor ‘‘Michelle’’.

Webb would send text messages to Santorini purporting to be from these characters.

In giving his verdict, Judge Tuohy said Webb’s deception was ‘‘implausible bordering on preposterous’’.

He said Santorini was a ‘‘very gullible man who was absolutely deceived’’.

Outside of court, Santorini said if he was told Webb’s entire story in one night he would have thought ‘‘what a bunch of crap’’.

But the way she drip-fed information and backed it up with fake text message and emails made it believable.

He said Webb also put on a lot of weight and exhibited symptoms, including vomiting, consistent with having a serious illness.

Convinced she was dying, he gave her control of one of his credit cards.

‘‘There was a lot of stress, and a lot of sadness, because I was grieving for someone that I considered close to me.’’

Between February and September 2010, Webb spent $28,000 on the card. At least $15,000 was spent on goods and services solely for her benefit.

In March 2011, Santorini became suspicious and confronted Webb. He ended the relationship and changed the locks at his house.

‘‘When I found out that everything she ever said to me from the day she came in the front door was all a bunch of lies in order to gain access to money, I had go through that stress all over again but instead the grief turns to anger, and a feeling of being completely violated.’’

Uncovering Webb’s scam felt like ‘‘leaving some sort of cult after being completely brainwashed’’, he said.

He said he spent 400 hours downloading thousands of text messages from two of his phones and emails to convince police to investigate Webb.

He said he was disturbed by Webb’s lack of remorse. He said she was a dangerous, callous woman. – Fairfax NZ