A woman has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after exploiting a couple with a young child and scamming them out of over £230,000 to sustain her extravagant lifestyle.
Haydee Daniel, 55, posed as a false contact at Barclays bank, befriending the couple in 2018. She assured them that she could secure affordable properties for them through her bank connection. Pretending to be their guarantor, she claimed their credit scores were insufficient to make the purchases. Daniel went on to convince them to prove their financial stability by depositing money into an account she had set up. She promised to return the funds once their financial eligibility was verified.
The victims made multiple payments to the "ring-fenced account," totaling £230,496. However, Daniel used this money to pay for luxurious rentals and goods or transferred it to others. The couple, left financially devastated, had borrowed money from family members under the assumption it could be repaid upon the deal's completion. To make matters worse, Daniel falsely claimed she had cervical cancer and only had 18 months to live, manipulating the victims' sympathy to further her scam. In reality, she had been cancer-free since the 1990s.
In court, it was proven that the false bank account was linked to Daniel, as her phone was exclusively used near her home. WhatsApp messages between Daniel and the victims revealed that the couple believed they would obtain four properties in exchange for their payments.
The impact on the victims has been profound, representing not only a substantial financial loss but also the theft of their security, future aspirations, and their child's well-being. Daniel's fraudulent scheme brought about constant stress and anxiety, negatively affecting every aspect of their lives. PC Evan Mcloughlin from the Met's Economic Crime Unit noted that the crime's impact was shocking, as Daniel orchestrated a sophisticated and convincing investment fraud on a large scale. She callously used the funds to sustain a lavish lifestyle while displaying no remorse for the suffering inflicted on her victims. In a cruel twist, she even attempted to postpone her trial for over three years by feigning numerous medical conditions, at the expense of the National Health Service. Photo by Essex Road, Islington by Robin Webster, Wikimedia commons.