Romance fraudster who was 'blinded by greed' jailed

A romance fraudster who conned men into spending tens of thousands of pounds to fund her lavish lifestyle has been jailed.

Model Gemma Kingsley, 50, was sentenced to seven years and seven months in prison at Swindon Crown Court earlier.

Across four years Kingsley, of Beadnell in Northumberland, tricked men into relationships and persuaded them to spend huge sums on her behalf as she claimed she was soon to inherit a large fortune.

Sentencing her, Judge Jason Taylor KC said she "wove a web of lies", adding: "Blinded by your greed you persistently and manipulatively pulled whatever lever you thought necessary to fund your extravagant lifestyle."

The court heard two of Kingsley's victims were recently divorced, and were emotionally vulnerable when they met her.

She told the victims she was soon to inherit about £80m from her late grandfather.

In a statement read out in court, one of her victims said: "I fear my daughter no longer looks up to me as she once did and that I am an untrustworthy and flawed parent.

"I am still struggling to come to terms with what Gemma did to me.

"I am suffering from crippling anxiety. I am trying to rebuild my life but I feel used and manipulated. I feel violated and betrayed."

As well as manipulating the men to spend large sums of money on her, Kingsley also stole or used false bank card details to pay thousands of pounds for hotel stays, including at a five-star Alpine resort in France, the court heard.

Wiltshire Police began investigating Kingsley in 2019 when the force received a report that she had fraudulently used the bank details of her mother's friend to pay for a stay at Cromhall Farm near Chippenham.

Other forces then notified Wiltshire Police of concurrent investigations into Kingsley which included "significant" cases of romance fraud that dated back to 2016.

Detectives found that she had defrauded a man out of thousands of pounds through a relationship that began in January 2016.

When it broke down two years later, Kingsley began conning another man, who she also told she was due to inherit a large sum of money.

As a result, he assisted her with significant deposits on a Land Rover and a Porsche, as well as expensive hotel stays, which led to debts in his name.

She began two further brief relationships in autumn 2019, where she again repeatedly used the victims' personal and company bank cards to make purchases without their knowledge.

Police also found that she committed theft and fraud against numerous other victims - including solicitor's firms, lawyers and a bank - by falsifying documents and letters.

At a previous hearing, she pleaded guilty to six counts of theft, four counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of using a false instrument with intent that it will be accepted as genuine, and one count of being in possession of an article for use in fraud.

Taylor told Kingsley: "You are a conwoman who traded on her good looks to ensnare your victims.

"You spun an intricate web of lies, including false documents to add credibility to your claims.

"Your greed was insatiable. Your duplicity and brass neck is staggering. You were a well spoken, educated and glamorous serial fraudster."

He added: "Your lack of remorse was only matched by your guile in squeezing every last penny from one victim before moving on to the next."

Kingsley will have to serve half of her sentence in prison before being released on licence.

Det Con Chris Hemns, from Wiltshire Police, described Kingsley as a "manipulative, cold-hearted individual".

He added that her actions had left multiple victims with "significant emotional anxiety and long-term mental and financial struggles."

Throughout the investigation, he said it had not been "easy to catch up" with her as she would frequently move to different addresses.

Det Con Hemns said: "When she was served her summons she was in a little cottage up in Scotland.

"When she was served with a court summons, her first question to officers was 'how did you find me?'.

"We've not seen many cases with a female suspect in this way. There's the Tinder Swindler, the way she operated was very similar," he added.

Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.