Married Carlisle man blackmailed after hotel date with 'sex worker'

Despite the man initally paying the woman £80 for her services, they never had sex but she then began repeatedly threatening to tell his wife about the hotel meeting if he refused to pay her large sums of cash.

His ordeal ended only after he had given her around £9,000, Carlisle Crown Ccourt heard. In the dock was 31-year-old Mirella Kovacs. She admitted a single offence of blackmail.

Prosecutor Andrew Evans said the man’s ordeal began in January when he first made online contact with the defendant, who was offering sexual services in the city. “He arranged to meet her at a city centre hotel,” said Mr Evans.

“She took £80 of his money, but made an excuse to leave, and didn't return.

"He contacted her to ask for his money back but the call went unanswered – until the defendant contacted him to say that her work had been discovered by her husband.

“She said he had left her as a consequence and that was now in financial difficulties, needing money to [support her family]. She asked the defendant for money.

“She reinforced the request with a threat: she’d worked out where the [victim] worked, his name and his business and that fact that he worked alongside his partner. Put simply, she threatened to reveal the victim’s arrangement to meet her to his wife.”

In the weeks that followed, Kovacs “bombarded” the defendant with messages and demands for money in exchange for her silence.

Eventually, he gave in, transferring £600 to her via Western Union on March 11. Despite receiving that cash, the demands for money ceased for only a few days.

Kovacs resumed making the demands, telling the man she needed to pay for hotel accommodation. The victim said she knew that revealing his secret would have a devastating effect on him and his family’s life.

Eventually the finance firm involved in the money transfers blocked further transactions amid concern that they were suspicious. As a result, the victim felt compelled to meet Kovacs' demands with cash payments.

These included:

·     Two transactions at a supermarket, involving £1,400.

·     A £400 payment that was pushed under a bedroom door at another city centre hotel.

·     A £3,500 payment made at location in a suburb of Glasgow.

·     A £900 payment in a city centre car park.

·     And further £600 payment made at a third city centre hotel.

The victim said the final transaction happened at a McDonald’s restaurant and involved £200. In total, there were 13 transactions, and around £9,000 paid over to Kovacs. The cycle of demands and payments ended on June 8.

Kovacs, from Farmeloan Road, Glasgow, told the man she was harvesting information about him from Facebook, and she used this to demand a further £2,500. “The complainant reached breaking point,” said Mr Evans.

“He described the huge impact on his life and a severe decline in his mental health. He stopped responding and resolved to go to the police.” After he stopped responding, she called him 47 times, and left him 128 messages in various forms.

Police arrested her as she drove past his place of work.

In a statement, the victim said he had lost his savings and had to work long hours to repair the financial damage. He also suffered stress as a result of the threats to reveal his secret to his entire family.

Jeff Smith, for Kovacs, told Judge Nicholas Barker: “As a consequence of this offending, Miss Kovacs has lost everything, including her freedom.

“She has been in custody since June 9. The partner with whom she was living has abandoned the relationship and her child is now living in Hungary with her mother. She knows she is the author of her own misfortunes.”

The lawyer said Kovacs understood the impact of her offending on the victim, and was pleased to have heard that he is no longer suffering. When released from her prison sentence, she aims to return to her native Hungary.

Judge Nicholas Barker told Kovacs: “You showed little remorse of sympathy.” Referring to a similar past case, Judge Barker quoted a senior judge who concluded that “blackmail is always nasty” and to be met with appropriate punishment.

He jailed Kovacs for 28 months.

After the case concluded, Detective Constable Gabrielle Nicholson said:"Kovacs took advantage of the victim, resulting in £9,180 worth of payments being made before the man reported Kovacs to the police.

“Blackmail can have a detrimental impact on a person, and we would encourage anyone experiencing this type of crime to report it to the police. I also hope that today’s sentence will act as a warning to others that If you do carry out such an offence you will be brought before the courts.”