‘HOW I CONNED A CONMAN’
Finding herself in a relationship with a serial fraudster, Emma had to use her wits to rescue her savings
Emma Ferris had recently been through an amicable divorce when she decided to try online dating. When she matched with Andrew Thomson, a charismatic Australian businessman, there was an instant connection.
He was kind and a good listener, providing comfort when a good friend’s husband died.
“I’ve since learned that’s how it works with conmen – showing empathy,” says Emma. “He’d continually ask, ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ That nurturing, emotional connection I hadn’t had in my marriage was developed.”
Andrew, who’d recently moved from Tasmania to Otago, NZ, where Emma lives, explained he was an entrepreneur with a track record that included a successful trucking company, a string of restaurants and an importing business. He told her he’d been an AFL player and a pro wakeboarder.
BUILDING TRUST
As they got to know one another, he’d surprise her with expensive gifts, and their first date was at an exclusive hotel.
“It’s not what I wanted, that grandiosity, but I’ve learned it’s part of trust building,” Emma tells Woman’s Day.
Soon her new boyfriend had met her family, including her two children. Despite Emma clocking the red flags and his colourful stories, she pushed her doubts aside. Andrew even front-footed the fact that she wouldn’t find him on Google as he’d supposedly been the victim of identity theft in the US.
The truth, however, was that Andrew had many aliases, including Andrew WC Tonks Thomson, the name he was eventually charged under.
Meanwhile, Emma, 38, was busy running her physiotherapist business and looking for ways that would give her the financial freedom to spend more time with her son and daughter. She’d successfully invested in property in Central Otago, so when her new boyfriend suggested they do something similar together, she agreed.
Andrew produced documents from his accountant in Australia showing he had more than $8 million in his bank account. He explained that he wanted to help the single mum by including her in on his deals. Before long, Emma had invested NZ$50,000 of her money into what she thought was a property in Queenstown.
Nothing seemed untoward at this point and he made all his repayments on her first investment.
But with Emma soon planning to invest with Andrew a second time, her friends became suspicious. They started investigating his background and one night dropped a bombshell on Emma: Andrew wasn’t who he said he was. He was a fraudster with several convictions in Tasmania.
LIES EXPOSED
The revelation came too late. Just a day earlier, Emma had paid $250,000 into his account.
“That day was horrific,” she remembers. “This person had groomed me and the lies were so deep, I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get out of them.”
Angry that someone had taken advantage of her, Emma decided to fight back. She kept up the pretence of their relationship and asked Andrew to meet her at the bank. She explained, apologetically, that her brother was uncomfortable with the transaction and requested he reverse the payment. Begrudgingly, Andrew agreed.
“I think he knew he was caught in some way,” she explains. “It’s all a game of risk with conmen, balancing out whether they are going to get caught or not.”
Andrew continued to peddle his lies, insisting he would pay her back the rest of her money. However, he later applied to the High Court to have his reparations reduced from $71,000 to $13,000, citing “personal hardship”. Now Emma doubts she’ll ever see a cent of it as at least two other victims of his crimes from 2016 are still out of pocket.
‘The lies were so deep, I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get out’
In March 2020 Andrew was sentenced for theft in a special relationship as well as charges relating to forged documents, managing a company while prohibited and making a false statement.
Now out of jail, Andrew served 18 months of a 28-month sentence.
Meanwhile, Emma has turned her traumatic experience into a successful podcast, Conning
The Con, co-produced with her sister Sarah.
It has led hundreds of women to reach out to Emma with their own tales of deceit, and she hopes it will help others recognise the warning signs of a con.
“Listening to your gut is the most important and I was too busy to do that,” says Emma.
As for how she feels about the conman himself? Amazingly, she’s quite sympathetic.
“I feel sorry for him,” says Emma. “I have so much depth of connection to other wonderful humans in my life and around the world. He’ll never get that.”