Serial romance fraudster jailed after ‘web of lies’ noticed girls loses hundreds of kilos

A serial fraudster who stole hundreds of kilos in romance scams has been jailed for nearly three years.

Ben Millin, from Yeovil, fabricated tales of dying family members, frozen financial institution accounts, job interviews and extreme well being circumstances to rip-off girls out of cash.

Four girls had been defrauded out of an estimated £30,000-40,000, with a considerable amount of the cash getting used to fund his playing habits.

‘Web of lies’

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The 32-year-old met Fiona in July 2021 and instructed her early on of their relationship a number of heartbreaking tales about his household. He additionally claimed he had cash points due to a dispute with an ex-partner relating to a home they had been promoting, who he claimed had turn into pregnant after being untrue.

He due to this fact requested for her to assist him pay payments, journey bills and extra, promising every time to pay her again.

The lies got here to a head in April 2022, when he promised Fiona to take her to Spain for a vacation. He modified the vacation spot to London – falsely claiming a coronary heart situation would stop him from flying. He had her pack for this journey to London and wait at dwelling, whereas he went to a job interview in Bristol early, earlier than he would return and so they set off for London. At that time she didn’t know she would by no means hear from him once more.

That night Fiona was apprehensive when she couldn’t pay money for Millin after the interview and known as hospitals and the police to report him lacking.

However, Millin’s appointment that day was not a job interview. It was in entrance of a court docket, as he was jailed for fraud by false illustration towards an ex-partner. It was solely when Fiona noticed the sentencing within the information that she realised she too was a sufferer, and the true extent of Ben’s lies and deceit fully shook her world.

Further victims

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Millin was launched from jail in December 2022 and inside six months started speaking with Charlotte through Instagram. Their relationship grew and he instructed Charlotte he was incomes £40,000 a 12 months as a self-employed gross sales marketing consultant.

Over the subsequent seven months he lied to Charlotte about monetary points and instructed her he had booked a vacation to Costa Rica for them each after successful £30,000 on a scratch card.

Whenever Charlotte sought among the a refund, Millin would make up tales of well being points for him and members of the family to win her sympathy.

In whole he stole roughly £20,000 from Charlotte – cash she had largely inherited from her father after he died just a few years earlier.

The police investigation discovered that between June and October 2023 Millin had spent on common £5,500 a month on a web based playing web site. He additionally had taken bank cards out in Charlotte’s title, and their landlady, Sophie, who lived with the couple for a number of months and thought she may belief Millin – till she realised what he had performed days after she left to go travelling. Sophie stated her dwelling now could be a ‘painful reminder’ of what Ben did and the stress he brought on her and Charlotte.

Millin was first arrested in March 2024, however a fortnight earlier he met Chloe, from Bournemouth, by a web based relationship web site. This time he falsely claimed to be a psychologist for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic crew, and that he was renovating a not too long ago bought farmhouse close to Dorchester.

During their three-month relationship, he lied to Chloe by telling her he booked holidays to London, Ibiza and Lille.

DC Claire Morgan, officer within the case, stated: “Ben Millin preyed on the goodwill of his victims by spinning an internet of lies. He tricked them into being sympathetic in direction of him.

“All the time he was using the money to fund his gambling habits, with seemingly little guilt given how he repeated the fraud against multiple victims.”

Police investigation

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Millin was charged with 4 counts of committing fraud by false illustration in June 2025. Last month he pleaded responsible at Taunton Crown Court, sitting at North Somerset Courthouse, and was sentenced on Thursday 31 July.

Millin, of Roping Road, was jailed for 34 months and handed restraining orders stopping him contacting any of the 4 victims. He was additionally handed a five-year severe crime prevention order. 

Impact on victims

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Fiona, from Exeter, has been recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction due to what Millin did and continues to see a therapist commonly. She stated she struggled to forgive herself for what occurred, contemplated suicide a number of occasions, and for a very long time was unable to talk his title.

Fiona, in her sufferer assertion ready forward of the sentencing listening to, stated: “I discover it tough to totally categorical the profound and lasting affect that Ben’s actions have had on my life and psychological well being. Not solely did he defraud me of each penny I had, however the way in which he did so, has brought on immeasurable injury to my well-being.

“Ben is a predator. He targets susceptible girls, exploiting their insecurities and empathy for his personal profit. He is, in my view, an entire hazard to society, particularly girls.

“He instructed numerous lies to make himself seem susceptible and in want of help. A youthful sister named Isabella who died of most cancers (who by no means existed), a grandfather whose loss of life supposedly brought on his father’s extreme melancholy, a brother’s suicide try, a critically sick mom who had been in an induced coma as a result of Covid-related pneumonia, and an ex-fiancée who had cheated on him and left him in monetary hassle.

“He even claimed to be a sufferer of fraud to excuse issues along with his financial institution accounts.

“Perhaps most outrageous was his declare that he suffered from a hereditary coronary heart situation requiring a pacemaker, with common ‘consultations’ in Bristol. These appointments had been truly court docket appearances for a earlier conviction.

“The day I really understood who Ben was, the worst day of my life, got here when he vanished.

“Believing he had a job interview, I searched desperately, calling hospitals in Exeter and Bristol, fearing his faux coronary heart situation had worsened. I even filed a lacking particular person report with the police.

“Then, by a pal, I realized he had been despatched again to jail for his earlier conviction.

“The harsh actuality hit me: he had defrauded me and had by no means supposed to repay any cash.

“He was nothing like the man he pretended to be. Ben invaded every part of my life”

Charlotte, from Crewkerne, stated it was not till she heard Ben had been charged and remanded that she felt really secure. She instructed him private points about previous relationships and household sicknesses, which he ‘weaponised’ towards her.

Charlotte stated: “I used to be a chess piece in a recreation that I didn’t know I used to be taking part in.

“On the night of the 22 December 2023, my mom despatched me a information article about Ben and his previous conviction; my complete world modified eternally and I shall by no means be the identical once more.

“I confronted Ben, who continued to lie and gaslight me. I used to be in shock, I couldn’t operate, nothing made sense and my complete world was turned the wrong way up.

“Ben then instructed me that on the 27 December he deliberate to confess all of it to his mother and father and they might pay me again and all can be okay, just for Ben to once more lie and play the sufferer and scar me eternally by faking his personal loss of life.

Charlotte continued: “I lived with somebody for months, somebody it seems I knew nothing about. Someone who would tidy the home, transfer furnishings, for the explanation I assumed was sort, now I realise that it was for his personal recreation.

“He’d instructed me he’d booked a vacation for us, and he wanted my passport, however what he actually was doing was fully and completely abuse his place of belief in our relationship and violating my privateness on each rely.

“The cash Ben has taken from me was my inheritance cash from my father.

“It was cash that I used to be at all times too scared to spend, because of the which means it needed to me. To me, spending it meant shedding extra of father which is one thing I may by no means face therefore why after over six years I had it in my financial institution untouched.

“I had defined to Ben how I’d needed to purchase my father a grave stone  – one thing I nonetheless couldn’t face because it felt very closing – to go travelling, to purchase a van and have the adventures I had at all times needed and deliberate earlier than my father grew to become sick, to have the safety of getting a house of my very own someplace I’d really feel secure and at peace lastly. 

“For Ben to know all of this and to still want more and more, to push and push me until I was so weak I couldn’t fight back, is everything you need to know about him, the mental abuse he so easily inflicted on me is completely life-changing for me.”

Charlotte added: “I really feel I may by no means have a relationship once more, which is totally out of character from the individual that I used to be.

“The issues that Ben has performed won’t ever go away me and that makes me so unhappy.

“Ben knew I needed a household and all of the hopes and goals I had for all times nevertheless for the reason that injury he has inflicted on me, I’ve misplaced belief in each particular person I do know and will meet sooner or later and even worse than that, the belief I’ve misplaced in myself.

“No matter how a lot remedy I do, or how a lot time passes, I’ll by no means be the identical.

“I’m nonetheless very susceptible and unable to work like I did earlier than him. My poor monetary state of affairs leaves me unable to afford to start out once more and discover a new dwelling, I misplaced my monetary safety on this silly recreation I didn’t know I used to be a part of earlier than it was far too late.

“I’ll by no means perceive how somebody can mislead you each second of each day so simply, while taking part in a sufferer with poor psychological well being. 

“He has stolen not only my money but my ability to have the future that I so desperately wanted. What he’s done to me physically, mentally and financially cannot be undone.”

Chloe, in her sufferer private assertion, stated she shared with Millin intimate particulars about how she cared for her husband for 2 years after his terminal most cancers analysis earlier than his loss of life.

She added: “Ben appeared to empathise, recounting his personal alleged tragedies, together with the lack of each his father and brother in a automotive accident. He used these fabricated tales to foster an emotional reference to me, gaining my belief beneath false pretences.

“As time progressed, Ben’s behaviour grew to become more and more erratic and regarding.

“He would stage emotional telephone calls, typically lasting lengthy durations, that seemed he was coping with distressing household points. Eventually, it grew to become evident that there was no-one on the opposite finish of the road.

“In one significantly disturbing incident, Ben claimed that his sister-in-law had stabbed his brother, that each had been hospitalised, and that their youngsters urgently required care. He requested me to arrange to take care of the youngsters, and we bought meals and provides for them.

“This complete state of affairs was later revealed to be fully fabricated.

“Ben’s conduct was not solely dishonest however extremely manipulative and emotionally exploitative. These weren’t informal lies, they had been deliberate fabrications centred round deeply delicate and traumatic themes, seemingly supposed to realize management and elicit sympathy. Reflecting on this, I imagine he derived a way of satisfaction from the confusion and misery he brought on.

“The affect of this expertise on my psychological well being has been profound. It has considerably eroded my capacity to belief others.

“I now discover myself questioning folks’s motives, doubting my very own judgment, and experiencing persistent anxiousness. In addition to the continued grief from the lack of my husband, this manipulation has brought on additional emotional hurt.

“In my opinion, Ben’s actions demonstrate a clear and disturbing pattern of calculated deception.”

‘Incredible courage’

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DC Morgan stated: “All the ladies on this case have proven unimaginable braveness and we’re grateful for them supporting these court docket proceedings. They are all victims and they need to really feel no disgrace about what occurred to them; there is just one one who needs to be embarrassed.

“I’ve been investigating crimes for 18 years and Ben Millin is by far probably the most advanced character I’ve met regarding the deceit and lies he managed to take care of. He was a grasp of manipulation.

“By coming ahead these girls helped to guard others being focused by him and probably different crimes from occurring.

“Sadly, I have no doubt there will be other victims of romance fraud out there who will read their powerful testimonies and they will be going through the exact same pain and trauma. Hopefully convictions like this give confidence to those people to report what has happened so we can help them.”