Man Suffers Heart Attack After Discovering Fiancée Duped Him & Brother Of £150,000 Claiming She Had Cancer
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She also contacted estate agents with a view to buying a house.Her
devastated fiance Richard Fortune was so distressed by Mitchell's
deception, he suffered a heart attack and is in hospital awaiting a
transplant.His brother Derek Fortune became suspicious his bank account
was being emptied in May last year.He made inquiries which revealed his
£90,000 savings had vanished. He was left £2,495 overdrawn on his
current account and had only eight pence in his savings account.In a
victim impact statement Derek told the court: "This money I will never
be able to replace and was the savings of my life's work."I am on the
point of losing my job where I have worked for 20 years because I have
had to take so much time off to visit my brother.
"I fear that if I lose him through ill health I will not have anything
worth living for. This seems to be a living nightmare which just gets
worse. There is nothing left."Despite what happens to her today these
debts will stay with us, and I can't see any light at the end of the
tunnel."
Swindon crown court heard how Mitchell drained the bank accounts of
fiance Richard and brother Derek without them knowing.She stole the
brothers bank cards, emptied their savings accounts and secured an
£11,995 loan against fiance Richard's family home.When the pair
questioned suspicious activity on their accounts, Mitchell fled the
country claiming she had to care for her terminally ill father in the
Czech Republic.
By then Mitchell had fleeced her fiance out of £41,000 and his brother
Derek out of £108,000.She justified her extravagant spending by telling
the pair she had a series of serious illnesses, including cancer and
liver disease.Prosecutor Claire Marlow told the court: "Derek and
Richard Fortune live together in what was their parents' house. "They
have a frugal lifestyle, and are unsophisticated in the ways of the
world.
"They have not embraced the technological age and until they met this
lady were inexperienced in relationships."She would tell them she was
suffering from life-threatening illnesses including liver disease and
cancer and at times was receiving treatment at Great Ormond Street
Hospital."Enquiries revealed the money was being used on limousines and
staying in a number of hotels as well as taking friends to concerts and
at one stage she was in contact with an estate agent about buying a
house."Mitchell, from Swindon, Wilts, was jailed on Friday after she
admitted 15 fraud charges and one of theft between 2008 and 2012.
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