SIPPING from her coffee cup in a cosy North London cafe, Angie Montana thought she had finally met the man of her dreams.
Little did she know that charming David Cohen, sat opposite her, would turn out to be one of Britain’s most prolific love rats — leaving her heartbroken and out of pocket.
David, who mum-of-two Angie met on a dating site, claimed he was a wealthy architect who travelled the world designing palaces for “kings and princes” and that he had once been married to a billionaire electronics heiress.
They enjoyed a string of dates, where David flashed the cash, before convincing her to lend him £3,200 — but she would soon discover he was a fraud.
His real name is David Checkley, and he had cruelly deceived more than 60 women across almost four decades.
Last month he was jailed for 11 years, with police describing him as “the most prolific and heartless” person carrying out this kind of fraud they had ever come across.
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Her voice breaking Angie, 63, from Hertfordshire, says: “I am a businesswoman, and very sensible. I can’t believe I got taken advantage of by a conman.
“But when I met David on the dating website Plenty Of Fish in January 2020, I was at the lowest point in my life.
“I had just finished chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma blood cancer and was recovering from a severe road collision in which I suffered arm, leg and chest injuries.
“I had been single for over a year after separating from the father of my grown-up children. I was lonely and I was looking for a partner.
“David was good-looking. We matched and we started messaging. He was charming, charismatic and I enjoyed his company.
“After three weeks and three dates, he began saying he was falling in love, although on my part I simply liked him very much.”
It was after this declaration of love that David phoned Angie asking for money.
She says: “He asked me to take a ‘leap of faith’ and lend him £3,200.
“I was very wary, but he told me that he had hit a cash flow problem on the way to the airport.
"He needed money for windows in his home and promised my money would be repaid within 48 hours. But four weeks passed and he still hadn’t paid me back.
“As our dates continued, David gave lots of convincing excuses explaining why the money hadn’t appeared, but an alarm bell rang in my head and I made the proviso that the money had be paid in 48 hours.
“But when he also asked for his own money to be deposited into my accounts in February 2020, I turned detective and found a website that revealed the real name behind the email address I had for him — David Checkley.
“Googling that name, I broke into a cold sweat and my hands shook. I felt sick to my stomach as I read articles reporting that he had a string of criminal convictions.
"The list was huge, and I was horrified to read that he’d even been involved in a violent crime.
“David was jailed for five years in 2002 for luring a man into a deal to buy fake Rolex watches, before the man was killed.
“The list went on and on. In 2010 he was imprisoned for six years and ten months after admitting conning ten women out of a total of approximately £163,000.
“I knew at that moment it could have been me who was conned for even more money or maybe even hurt.
“It was a terrible shock, but I went straight to the police and they started an investigation. I was crying for days. I had been on four dates with David and every time I saw him, he was driving a different car.
"I had written down the number plates as it seems a suspicious thing to do, and when I traced the vehicles on a private vehicle history check, they were all registered in different women’s names.
“After reporting Checkley to Action Fraud, the Police came to my house and took a statement from me.
“They advised me to call them immediately if by any chance Checkley came to my house. This was scary and traumatising for me and I was obviously concerned about my life. But he had no idea I had flagged him to the police.
‘Painful to relive’
“Communication stopped entirely in October 2020 when I finally got a £1,000 payment from an account I didn’t recognise.
"He texted to say I’d get the rest on another date, but I never did and I never heard from him again, thankfully.”
Sadly, Angie is not alone in being the victim of what is dubbed a ‘rom con.’
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau received more than 8,036 reports of romance fraud in the past financial year, amounting to more than £92million, with an average loss of £11,500 per victim.
As cops probed Angie’s claims, nine other female victims aged 40 to 70 were traced or came forward, making Checkley one of Britain’s worst-ever romance fraudsters.
He was arrested in July 2021 and last month faced an eight-week trial at the Old Bailey where Angie, along with nine other women, gave evidence against him.
The jury was told that many of his victims had felt too embarrassed to go to the police, so it wasn’t until Angie alerted the authorities that he was caught.
On November 29 Checkley was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment after being found guilty of 19 counts of fraud and one count of theft.
Angie says: “Seeing him jailed for that long, I knew that he couldn’t rip off any more women, and that was satisfying.
“His other victims told of losing their businesses and even their homes to his scam, so I was one of the lucky ones.
“When I complained to my bank about the scam I was refunded £1,600. But taking David to court was never about the money. It was always about the appalling deception and manipulation.
“Two years on, I’m still damaged. His abuse of my trust left me shattered, doubting my own judgment and suspicious of everyone new I meet.
“I didn’t go back on dating websites for well over a year after finding out the truth.
“But once I finally did, if any man asked me what I did for a living, I said, ‘I’m a police officer’ and most blocked me and scarpered. There must be countless scammers out there. Fortunately I’m now happy with a new partner I’ve been seeing for nine months, after meeting on Facebook Dating.
“It’s painful to relive my story, but I’m speaking out to become a voice for romance fraud victims and warn other women.
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“I think there are other victims of romance con artists out there, too ashamed to come forward.
“I want to tell these victims to contact the police, because that’s the only way these despicable characters will be stopped.”
HOW TO SPOT A ROM CON
ROMANCE fraud expert Lisa Mills from the charity Victim Support reveals the four signs of a con artist to NIKKI WATKINS.
EARLY DECLARATIONS OF LOVE
EARLY and dramatic declarations of love are a common tactic employed by fraudsters to build trust and trick you into developing strong feelings for them.
Once you’re under their spell they will try to manipulate you into giving them money or personal information.
KEEPING YOUR ROMANCE UNDER WRAPS
BE extremely wary of anyone asking you to keep your relationship a secret.
They may want to isolate you from your family to make you more vulnerable.
ASKING TO SEE YOUR DRIVING LICENCE
NEVER hand over sensitive information or copies of key documents such as your driving licence and passport. They may be duplicating them to obtain credit.
USING AI TO TRICK YOU
MORE and more fraudsters are using AI to trick you into believing they’re a real person.
If their voice sounds distorted or their eyes and mouth seem to be moving in an unnatural way while on a video call it could be a sign that the person you’re speaking to isn’t real.