Daily Mail

Tinder date must pay back £180k she got from her besotted lover

- Daily Mail Reporter

a BeSOTTeD businessma­n who gave £180,000 to a woman 20 years younger he met on Tinder has won a court fight to make her pay it back.

Marcel Kooter, 57, said he was ‘blinded by attraction’ when he transferre­d £182,000 to Manuela Radeva after they began talking online in February 2017.

Described as ‘wealthy’ but ‘naive’, Mr Kooter plunged into a nine-month relationsh­ip with Bulgarian Miss Radeva, who moved into his flat in Woolwich, south-east London.

Miss Radeva, 37, claimed on her Tinder profile that she was an investment banker at Citibank and was single, the High Court in London heard. But she was neither, having married another man a few weeks before she made con- tact with Mr Kooter, he claimed. after their relationsh­ip broke down, he sued her, claiming he had given her the £182,000 to invest for him, thinking she was a high-level investment expert.

She insisted that Mr Kooter gave her the bulk of the money to support their lavish lifestyle, and that she had told him trading was just her hobby.

The court heard that they lived luxuriousl­y, going on skiing trips and staying at top hotels, with Mr Kooter, an oil industry consultant, picking up the tab. He also spent thousands on gifts.

But after they split, he demanded the return of £182,000 he gave her to invest for him, plus 36,000 euros (£31,500) he says was a loan.

Michael Collard, Miss Radeva’s lawyer, said: ‘This was a man on a very high income in what was clearly a serious relationsh­ip. Whether the money was paid is not the important point – the question is what was it for? They were living a luxurious lifestyle and there was lots of money being spent.’

However, Neil Vickery, representi­ng Mr Kooter, said: ‘It is clear the money he was paying her was an investment. She described herself as a capital investment manager on Tinder and in emails.’ Miss Radeva said some of the £182,000 was spent on cryptocurr­ency technology for Mr Kooter, while the rest funded their domestic expenses.

But Judge John Cavanagh QC said she couldn’t account for all of the money, her Tinder profile had stated she was ‘employed by Citibank’, and she signed emails as ‘Manuela Radeva, Capital Investment Manager’. He said emails detailed arrangemen­ts for Mr Kooter to make investment­s with her. In one, Mr Kooter wrote: ‘Just putting a large amount of money into your bank account seems a bit reckless.’

The judge said: ‘There is a great deal of evidence to show Mr Kooter was giving Miss Radeva substantia­l sums so she could invest on his behalf, having led him to believe she was an expert investor in the finance industry.’

He granted summary judgment of £182,050 against Miss Radeva, plus £3,641 interest, and ordered her to pay more than £20,000 in legal costs.

But he refused to award Mr Kooter the 36,000 euros, saying that must be decided by another court.

 ??  ?? Luxurious lifestyle: Manuela Radeva, 37
Luxurious lifestyle: Manuela Radeva, 37
 ??  ?? ‘Naive’: Marcel Kooter, 57
‘Naive’: Marcel Kooter, 57

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom