Mathew Waters, a 37 year hospital employee from Derby, England, fraudulently duped girlfriends out of thousands of pounds to fund his gambling habits a court has heard.Waters was sentenced to serve 1 year and 10 months in prison, after the trial at Exeter Crown court.
Left Bankrupt
One of the victims became bankrupt after transferring thousands of pounds of her savings after he had told her a criminal gang were after him and would beat him up if he didn’t pay up.He met his first victim back in 2013 when he worked for the Devon ambulance service. Gemma Beer, was 31 at the time they met and was in the process of buying her first home.She handed over £50,000, after he persistently lied gangs were after him for a debt, and they would beat him if he didn’t clear the debt. The money she gave him was set aside as a deposit for her new home, plus handing over her salary. Waters callously preyed on her vulnerability as her father had recently passed away.
Terrified
He used her money to pay off personal debt and paid the rest in to various bank accounts, he even took credit cards out in her name and ran up huge debts, unbeknown to her.Ms Beer told the court she was terrified of Waters, he became violent and would throw things if she didn’t hand over the cash.She said, “ He destroyed me, I am unable to build or maintain a relationship again. He made my heart die a bit each time he did it. He broke a piece off me day by day.”After pleading guilty to a fraud charge, residing judge Timothy Rose said, “ Miss Beer feels utterly betrayed and devastated in every conceivable way. Her life has been utterly destroyed. She was bled dry and forced into personal bankruptcy.”This was not the first time Waters had duped women, around the same time he started a relationship with Ms Beer, he also formed an online relationship with another woman from Staffordshire, UK, he swindled £50,000 from this woman, he was jailed for the crime for 28 months, neither women knew about one another.Waters defence claimed the crime was a direct link to his clients gambling addiction, he hoped to win back the money from gambling to pay back the women involved.