You’ve con too far, cheat told
DATING SITE FRAUDSTER’S SENTENCE PLEA REJECTED
Reporter A CONMAN who fleeced a lovestruck doctor he met on an online dating site has been told he stands no chance of getting out of jail early after losing an appeal.
Christopher Frances Heayns, 35, conned Dr Liz Todd out of her entire savings, leaving her with just £25 after a relationship after meeting her on Plenty of Fish dating site.
The convicted conman set up home in a sprawling Grade II-listed house in Hexham, getting her to take the tenancy, but not paying the rent.
He talked Dr Todd into taking out loans, which she could not repay, resulting in her losing her home in Jesmond, Newcastle.
Heayns, who had a string of previous convictions under a different name hundreds of miles away in Bournemouth, was convicted of four frauds and several breach of bankruptcy offences last year.
In July, he was jailed for a total of nine and a half years at Newcastle Crown Court for the “astonishing” campaign of deception.
The callous conman tried for a cut in the term, but was told he stood no chance by Mr Justice Gilbart, who refused permission to appeal.
“This is an offender who will carry on offending and from whom the public urgently need protection,” he told the Court of Appeal in London.
Experts have branded Heayns, formerly of Terrier Close, Bedlington as a ‘fantasist.’
The court heard Heayns had been out of prison only a few days when he targeted the doctor in July 2013.
He set up a profile on a dating site in which he falsely claimed to be a barrister who had recently moved to the Newcastle area.
The ‘slick and charming’ man claimed he had a string of properties and was due to come into a large sum of money from an investment.
However, he said he was having problems with credit and charmed the unsuspecting doctor into lending him huge sums.
By the time his fraud had unravelled around the end of 2013, the doctor was up to her neck in debt.
She had a county court judgment entered against her because of unpaid rent and lost her own home, said the judge. “The effect on the doctor was devastating,” he added.
Heayns was branded “the most dishonest person I’ve ever encountered,” by Recorder Euan Duff at Newcastle Crown Court last July.
Dr Todd’s parents were also stung by the fraudster to the tune of over £250,000.
Lawyers for Heayns yesterday argued that mental health issues lay behind his offending and should result in a cut in his sentence.
But the appeal judge, sitting with Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, said the offences and Heayns’ past were too serious.
He had convictions for over 130 previous offences and had used 13 different surnames during his criminal career, he said.