‘We Were Victims of Britain’s Most Prolific Romance Scammer’ | This Morning

and their love life maybe gets a little bit of a rroo and research has shown that Jan sees the biggest number of signups for dating naps right but when looking for love is important to stay vigilant like last year in the UK a staggering 92 million pounds was lost to romant scams which is sadly something our next guests have experienced firsthand yeah Sharon Sher and Lisa Johansson were both conned by Britain's most prolific romance scammer David checkley who I'm delighted to say is currently behind bars after defrauding around £ 100,000 from at least 10 women not a nice person my word Sharon and Lisa are here to share their stories today and thank you for coming on and sharing your story because you know it takes a lot of courage to come on national TV and and say I've been duked I've been duked so Sharon I'm going to start with you um how did you meet David um he walked into my shop and said he was looking for rice cooker I was selling Retro stuff so I didn't have anything like that absolutely Charming handsome and he just sweet talked to me for the next hour but found out everything about me within the hour he good I owned my own place if I had my own business how many kids I had if I had a big family yeah he knew what he was ask this is the thing I it's very important to highlight this from the start he was very very good at scamming cuz you're very very bright smart strong people he was good at his job he knew what he was doing what's your experience of that first meet of day the first meeting met him on on Plenty of Fish and it didn't take more than a couple of days before we actually met um and again he knew everything about me within the first drink wow so it's the first time you two have met today so sharing stories and your stories you know you're talking about David they quite similar in the way that they he's approached you both uh yes in many ways well he had a standard like mod operandi he you know it was his job so he was really good at his job well I mean Sher must have been good I mean he did feed you some proper Whoppers like he said he was in a he said he was um that he was a US Air Force pilot during the Vietnam war that's where he got the shrapnel wound in his head and his nose no and and he said his parents had died in an a aircraft yes no he said his ex-wife was an American billionaire yeah um and that he was a personal friend of Michael Jackson yes had photos and everything and you didn't ever think he he's telling a whoer uh not at the beginning I mean obviously as time went on I was with him for three years as time went on uh little things started to come up and I would question him and he would say what sort of man do you think I am you know I've met your children I've met your your grandchildren I've stayed in your house I've been to Grenada yeah to meet your family and his sister's actually police woman uh you couldn't make that up and she she really is she really yeah she's retired now but um and um I mean he is it just trips off the tongue and if you say are you sure he'll throw it right back on you it's interes the size of the lies because they're so big that you think he can't be lying because it's almost hard to believe anyway even if it was real you kind of go along with it I guess Lisa what was your experience of of the tales he told and and how you fell for him oh I was told very early on again I was told he was from White Plains New York um he's got a brother in Texas um I never actually went to his home or met his family met one person from his family um but but the the lies were out of this world yeah like why were the examples of the lies oh goodness there were so many um I can't even think yeah can can I ask did you both for for him did you both love him do you oh definitely definitely it just goes to show you know when you're in love things get blinded don't they and you let a you let a lot slip when you're when you're loved up you do let a lot SL but the problem with him was he was a complete controlling dominating character so he threatened my son he yeah he um also alienated me from my friends you know are you home no I'm out well if you're not back in 5 minutes I'm leaving that type of thing and when did he start asking you for money Sharon I mean and how did he start asking for M three weeks what two to three weeks into the relationship yeah he used to come up to my shop every day and um he said he was having cash flow issues and I said listen I'm not wealthy but I can lend you some money he actually wrote something down to say that he owed me the two grand that I was going to lend him and then when I was in the bank he phoned me he said oh could you make that three oh yeah cuz he had you yeah Lisa when did you start getting the first warning signs the red flags the red flags um I was struggling I was actually signed off at the time when when I I knew David for depression and anxiety and uh so I was on Universal Credit so money was tight money was tight I had a little bit of saving um and of course he asked for that when I asked for money back because otherwise I would have to go to a food bank it was I thought we were over that over what well we're in a partnership you give me money I give you money and I said yeah the only problem is I give you money and you don't give me anything give you anything back he did but small amounts tiny amounts yeah Lisa what did your friends and family think of him um my oldest son met him my oldest son's wife met him um they didn't think much of him but they only met him once and after that I no nobody's meeting him how did you find out he was a scammer he always told me he was an architect and 3 months to half a year before the police phoned me and told me about him uh he asked me to find either a garage or storage unit and and I said okay I'll do that went to big yellow I had some things in storage there um and said I need the size of a garage and they told me the cubic feet of the garage size Locker um and when I told David about that he went no that's not very small uh that's not very big and and he I said well it's garage size so I said how do you work it out then and he told me how he would work it out and for an architect I don't think I would have bought one of his houses if you couldn't work that out you got a phone call from the police to say this guy's aong yeah he they told me he was with the 17 women at the time getting that phone call it was like he died it honestly I didn't feel sadness for the loss of the relationship because really I think it had run its course anyway um so it was a cut off point well on the 29th of November um he was convicted of 19 counts of Fraud and one of theft and he was sentenced to 11 years in prison I mean how are you both feeling about that now well good he's not going to do 11 years he's only going to do half and then he'll be out and do it again but everybody knows what he is yeah let's show us photograph again take this on board okay look out for this guy okay is not to be trusted when he comes out no and and that's the job that you both have done today by coming on TV and telling every everyone about him and tell him that really smart strong people like yourselves can be ConEd means yes you know it is true but Josie people might feel nervous about coming out and and and and going to the police about someone but they don't need to the example being said here today do they yeah thank you for coming on and sharing your story to meet than you Lisa

Channel: This Morning

Views: 45,083

Keywords: This Morning, This Morning ITV, Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Alison Hammond, Dermot O'Leary, ITV, STV, Josie Gibson, Craig Doyle, Rylan, This Morning Funny Moments, This Morning Funniest Moments, This Morning Interviews, Alison Hammond Interviews

Id: 7ogWESouWzs

Length: 9min 3sec (543 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024