By Shannine O’Neill
**EXCLUSIVE**
THIS WOMAN has been bombarded with sympathy online after she spoke about how she was cruelly swindled out of hundreds of pounds by the man she thought was her boyfriend who was pretending to be suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for sympathy until HIS mother revealed he had a four month old baby with his REAL GIRLFRIEND.
Social Media Manager Beth Thomas (30) from South Wales decided to move to Yorkshire in 2015 after going through a hard break-up with a previous boyfriend, where she met the man she believed was going to make the next chapter of her life the best one yet.
Beth met the mysterious handsome stranger a few summers ago at her new Job in Yorkshire as an international marketing exec and falling for his charming and friendly personality, she quickly started a whirlwind romance with him.
The relationship was very intense from the beginning, as they shared secrets about their lives that they felt they couldn’t share with anyone else, he gained her trust by including his traumatic childhood and tragic losses that have led him to be homeless and bankrupt.
The Yorkshireman told Beth that he was abandoned by his parents as a baby and was raised by nuns, alongside his father passing away a mere few weeks before he had met Beth.
He also stated that he was a long-time sufferer of Multiple Sclerosis, even dropping into a seizure in front of her.
Alongside his personal tragedies, he also confided in Beth that his professional ventures caused him to be homeless and bankrupt, due his money being tied up in the multiple businesses he had owned.
All of his tragedies had made Beth even more infatuated with him, bringing them closer together as they shared secrets about their lives and talked about the future.
Beth felt pity on her new man, buying food and paying for outings, and letting him stay with her while he got back on his feet from his business ventures gone-wrong.
Even his co-workers were in the midst of raising money for their down-trodden peer, which they paid out of their own pocket.
Two-months passed between Beth and her Yorkshire lad, when one day she got a message from three separate women, her boyfriend’s mother, his supposed ex-girlfriend, and the ex-girlfriend’s mother.
Beth was horrified to read the messages from the three women, all stating that everything she knew about her down-on-his-luck beau was a lie.
His ex-girlfriend insisted that she was indeed his current girlfriend, who was caring for his four-month old daughter while he was galavanting around with Beth and pretending that she no longer existed to him.
His mother also warned Beth that this wasn’t the first time he had done this to women, as he had a chequered past of manipulating women, lying about being homeless and bankrupt in order to steal their money and possessions.
Beth had even discovered that his Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis was a lie, and that he had faked a seizure in-front of her for sympathy.
Beth was even instructed by his mother to cancel all of her bank accounts and change her passwords, as he was known to steal bank cards and women’s money that he was in relationships with, without them even realising.
Beth confronted the swindler, who denied ever doing such things and claimed that his ex-girlfriend was ‘psycho’ and was lying to get him back.
What he didn’t realise though, was that Beth had confirmation from both his mother and his ex-girlfriend’s mother, too. This was enough for Beth to cease all communication with the man and try to come-to-terms with the movie-worthy experience she had been through for the past two-months.
After the unbelievable experience, Beth took to her TikTok account that she shared with her friend Molly Cookson, called Dating Unhinged, and broadcasted her story to the world.
Beth’s story was watched by over nine-thousand people, with many comparing her experience to that of the famous true crime documentary on Netflix called The Tinder Swindler.
The Tinder Swindler showcased the stories of a group of women who were swindled out of thousands of pounds each by a handsome man they had met on Tinder, which people compared to Beth’s situation, even dubbing the man the ‘Yorkshire Swindler’.
“I met a guy at work and quickly started a relationship with him”, she said.
“As we started to form a relationship, he shared a selection of things about his traumatic life, including that he grew up in care and his parents had abandoned him when he was a baby and was taken in by nuns who brought him up.
“He also said that his dad died a few weeks before I’d met him and that he had MS and had a seizure in front of me.
“He also said that he had owned a lot of businesses and had a lot of money but it was tied up in his ventures and so he was waiting on a big pay out and at present was hard on funds. As a result, colleagues from the office were raising funds from their own pockets to support him.
“He’d also been homeless for a year and a stranger took him in on Christmas Day.”
Beth gave this man a place to stay, food, and over hundreds of pounds in total as she felt pity for his situation.
“Unfortunately, I later found out that none of the above was true apart from being homeless for a bit”, she said.
“One evening I had a message from his (supposedly estranged) mother, his (supposedly ex) but very current partner and the girl’s mother. All three informed me that everything I believed about him was a lie.
“He was very much still with the ex, who also had his four-month-old baby.
“His mum revealed that he had used similar lies with other women to scam them out of money and urged me to cancel all of my bank cards and change my passwords in case he was doing the same to me.
“This was a scam he had used on me and as I later came to learn, on multiple other women in the past.”
Beth confronted the thief about the accusations from his ex-girlfriend, which of course he denied.
“He had said that the ex wasn’t well and was lying. At this point he hadn’t realised that his mum had also gotten in touch with me.
“By the time that he had, I had ceased communication.
“It all left me quite traumatised, the amount of lies one person could tell and keep up with was terrifying.
“I’ve definitely learnt to trust again, but that trust has sadly continued to be broken by past partners.”
Once Beth told others about her ordeal, she found that most people were incredibly supportive, yet shocked at how someone could lie so effortlessly.
“When I tell people, they can’t quite believe it’s all true. The levels of lies told are what shocks people the most because it is so ridiculous you would think it can’t be made up”, she said.
“My friends and family were great during this time, as was the employer we both worked with at the time. My boss was just brilliant.
“People also comment that it is so ridiculous it should be some kind of TV drama such as The Tinder Swindler or Inventing Anna.”
ENDS
