- Sian White falsely claimed she was a wealthy medical lawyer with a rich father
A conwoman who left an NHS worker she met on Tinder homeless and jobless after promising him a new life in Dubai before conning him out of thousands has been spared jail.
Sian White, 26, falsely claimed she was a wealthy medical lawyer with a millionaire father and concocted a series of fictional characters to convince the man his exciting Emirates opportunity was legit.
But Newcastle Crown Court heard the job and accommodation he was offered never existed, and the flights and hotel he forked out for were never reimbursed. Instead, White had used his personal details to apply for 22 loans, credit cards and bank accounts.
White, of Pickering, North Yorkshire, admitted controlling and coercive behaviour and fraud in relation to the man.
She also pleaded guilty to fraud offences in relation to landlords, housemates and other unsuspecting people she ripped off and has previous convictions for dishonesty.
Sian White, 26, (pictured) falsely claimed she was a wealthy medical lawyer with a millionaire father
Mr Recorder Toby Hedworth KC told her: ‘You have demonstrated the ability to be one of the most compulsively dishonest defendants to appear before this court and that’s saying something.
‘You employed extremely sophisticated methods to defraud perfectly ordinary people who were either offering accommodation, were sharing accommodation, were seeking accommodation or just people you sought to take advantage of.’
The recorder said the victim at the centre of the Dubai scam was ‘well and truly conned in a wholesale way’.
Prosecutor Michael Cahill told the court White met up with the man in person in August 2020, after they met on the online dating site, and she claimed to live in a plush city apartment in Newcastle.
Mr Cahill said: ‘She presented as a young, successful professional.
‘She told him her father was a successful millionaire property developer who owned property around the country. The millionaire father was fictional.’
The court heard as their relationship developed, the man wanted to move closer to Newcastle and White claimed her father would let him a home in the upscale suburb of Jesmond.
Mr Cahill said: ‘He began to receive text messages from a mobile phone number who introduced himself as the father, Dave. In fact, it was the defendant.’
White, of Pickering, North Yorkshire, admitted controlling and coercive behaviour and fraud in relation to the man
The court heard ‘Dave’ offered a series of potential homes to the victim but there always ended up being a problem that stopped him from moving in.
After sharing his ‘dreams and ambitions’ with White, he eventually, in January 2021, moved into the lavish Central Lofts in the heart of Newcastle and was given a tenancy agreement from ‘Dave’ for his new home.
Within days he was then offered the chance to work abroad, doing social media for a sports management company in Dubai and quit his NHS job to accept.
The court heard ‘Dave’ said there was an issue with the flights he booked and the victim spent £600 to get new ones for himself and White, with the promise he would be reimbursed.
From February 1, 2021 until March 31, 2021 the couple were in Dubai.
Mr Cahill told the court: ‘During this time she created other characters to further her fraud. There was James the manager who was contacting him to set up employment, orgainise blood tests. There was Sophie the HR manager.’
While in Dubai, the victim received a call about his car being parked at Central Lofts, which he thought was his home, but turned out to be a 30-day rental taken out by White.
Mr Cahill said from that point ‘her lies began to unravel’, by which time the victim was homeless, jobless and had spent all of his savings.
White was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation requirements and 150 hours unpaid work
The victim said in an impact statement he now feels ‘cold, detatched and suspicious’ towards people.
He described White as a ‘toxic and warped individual’ and added: ‘So much of her life has been lying, stealing, deceiving and defrauding.’
The fraud offences White admitted relate to £1,000 worth of purchases made on a housemate’s bank cards in shared accommodation, using over £100 on another roommate’s card to book an ‘escape room trip’, failing to pay £1,160 rent at another property, both in 2018.
White also advertised a room to rent in Wakefield in 2018 and accepted a £395 deposit from a student who was then left out of pocket and unable to move in.
In 2019 she posed as a law firm employee to rent a property belonging to a doctor, using forged references then failed to pay £4,375 in rent.
When the owner finally got control back of his home he needed to replace carpets and said there was ‘rubbish everywhere’.
In 2020 White met up with a woman who she left £118 out of pocket in a trasaction over false eyelashes.
That same year White met with a woman who had formed a Facebook group for people interested in spending summers in Majorca.
White took the woman’s phone and used her details to transfer £11,000 from her mother’s bank account, which was eventually recovered.
White also met up with an ex but ‘forgot’ her card during a day out and said she would pay half but never sent the money. She then used his details to apply for a Lloyds TSB bank account and a Capital One credit card in his name.
She also failed to pay rent at another privately rented accommodation, where the owner again found ‘rubbish everywhere’, mouldy takeaway food, sanitary products and bloodstained bedsheets when she finally gained access.
Jeremy Barton, defending, said White has now enrolled on a pregraduate university course and has insight into her offending.
Mr Barton said: ‘She has a number of issues, feeling the need to impress, embelish and make herself look better than she is.’
Mr Barton said White has help from a support network and has been in no further trouble.
Recorder Hedworth agreed there had been a ‘radical change’ in White’s behaviour and there is suggestion she could have a personality disorder.
He sentenced her to two years, suspended for two years, with rehabilitation requirements and 150 hours unpaid work.