Ex-Whitemarsh man swindles bride-to-be of $250K

NORRISTOWN » It could be a country music song titled, “Wedding Day Blues.”

A tale of love became one of betrayal for a Montgomery County woman and her relatives who were swindled out of more than $250,000 by the woman’s paramour, a man claiming to be a rising country music star who devised an elaborate financial scheme that included a fake Hawaiian wedding.

“He’s a swindler who met an unwitting young lady from Montgomery County down in Memphis, Tennessee. He informed her that he was a musician who played in Toby Keith’s band…It was all a lie. Toby Keith did never know him. He was not a musician. He never had a contract,” Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Daniels said

about David Lawrence Jensen’s deception.

“His one job, as we were able to figure out, was swindling women who were unwitting into believing that he was in love with them and going to maintain a relationship with them for the long haul, only to steal their money,” Daniels added.

Jensen, 44, formerly of the 300 block of Andorra Glen Court, Whitemarsh Township, was sentenced in county court to 2½ to five years in state prison, to be followed by five years’ probation, after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of dealing in proceeds of unlawful activities and theft by deception in connection with fleecing three county women out of a combined $252,000 in connection with incidents that occurred between April and August 2015.

Judge Risa Vetri Ferman, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, ordered Jensen to pay full restitution to his onetime fiancee and two of her relatives and to have no further contact with the women.

An investigation began on Aug. 3, 2015, when the then 32-year-old victim, now of Upper Gwynedd, went to police to report she was a victim of fraud.

The woman told Hatfield detectives she met Jensen, who at that time called himself “David Lawrance,” during a vacation in Memphis, Tenn., in November 2013, and that the pair began a relationship. Jensen allegedly told the victim he was “in the process of receiving a lucrative country singing contract,” detectives alleged.

“David Lawrance presents himself to (the victim) as a rising musician and songwriter associated with country music singer Toby Keith,” Hatfield Detective Daniel Tinneny alleged in the arrest affidavit, adding Jensen moved to Pennsylvania in January 2014 and shared an apartment with the victim in Whitemarsh. “Lawrance tells (the victim) that he is signed to a contract with country music musicians Toby Keith and Eric Church and is waiting for his large contract payment to come through.”

Jensen’s string of lies continued when he told the victim that Toby Keith rented a mansion in Hawaii for August 2014 and said “that this would be a great time and opportunity for a destination wedding” for the couple, according to the criminal complaint. The cost of the trip was to be between $500 and $1,000 per couple.

During June 2014, the victim and Jensen asked relatives and friends to join them for the destination wedding in Hawaii and the attendees provided payments to Jensen and the victim for the trip, detectives said.

But Jensen later presented the victim with more lies, claiming a series of “traumatic” events, including a hurricane and threats made to Toby Keith, forced the cancellation of the nuptials.

“Lies and lies and lies,” Daniels said.

Following the cancellation of the wedding, the victim reimbursed her family and friends with her own funds, according to the criminal complaint.

In April 2015, Jensen contacted the victim’s aunt, of Hatfield, telling her that the destination wedding was back on and that the Hawaiian mansion was still under the lease agreement entered into during the original 2014 plans. Jensen told the aunt that the trip was now $3,000 per person, according to court documents.

However, Jensen claimed to the victim’s aunt “that the wedding and trip is a surprise” and instructed her not to tell the victim or her parents and encouraged the aunt to ask family and friends to attend the wedding, Tinneny alleged.

In addition to the cost of attending the destination Hawaiian wedding, Jensen told the victim’s aunt “that there were spa treatments and a fishing trip which attendees could also pay for,” according to court papers.

“What we found out was that too was a big lie,” Daniels said.

But the victim’s aunt, as instructed by Jensen, then made six deposits totaling $135,920 into two bank accounts to cover the costs of 18 wedding attendees, according to the arrest affidavit. Between April 2015 and July 2015, the aunt did not have contact with her niece concerning the purported surprise wedding.

However, as the date of the destination wedding grew closer, the aunt “became wary” that the trip would actually occur, and on July 30, 2015, she spoke with her niece and they compared notes about Jensen’s activities and determined that Jensen “had in fact deceived and defrauded them of their money,” Tinneny alleged.

At that time, Jensen was believed to already be out of state.

The investigation ultimately determined that Jensen also used his onetime girlfriend’s identity to open credit card accounts without her authorization and made unauthorized purchases, according to a criminal complaint filed by Whitemarsh Detective Craig Cubbin.

Police used fingerprints taken from the Whitemarsh apartment shared by the victim and Jensen to ultimately determine Jensen’s true identity. In court documents, detectives alleged Jensen was also wanted in Colorado, Minnesota and South Dakota and had previous convictions for theft by swindle charges.

Toby Keith