Romance fraudster conned me out of £20,000 by pretending he needed private medical treatment

Suzanne Famula has bravely spoken out, after a romance fraudster stole over £20,000 by pretending he needed money for medical treatment. After around two months of dating, Christopher Harris told 39-year-old Suzanne that he had long-term health problems and that he needed £400 to "go private" to receive "proper care". She lent him the money on the condition he pay her back once he got paid - but he soon began asking for more money claiming that he was too unwell to work and needed it to cover medical expenses, mortgage payments and bills.

In a short video, Suzanne explains how she though she was ‘helping someone out who was really poorly’ - but it soon turned out he was lying. The hairdresser from Hertfordshire describes his online dating profile as ‘all very normal’ and that he told her he worked at a car dealership. “To me that’s a normal run of the mill job...he didn’t have that job.” Harris, who is now in prison, had 16 previous convictions for more than 25 offences, including nine fraud-related cases.

Suzanne is speaking out for the first time in the hopes that romance fraud will be treated as a more serious crime. Despite the prison sentence, she feels more needs to be done to support victims of romance fraud. Suzanne said: "I wasn't taken seriously or respected. I had to really advocate for myself and fight my corner every step of the way.”

You can sign Suzanne's petition to make romance fraud a specific offence, and to create a register for romance fraudsters here - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652384.