A GRIEF-STRICKEN Carlisle widow was scammed out of £2,000 by a “romance fraud” conman she met on a dating website.

The unsuspecting and vulnerable victim first contacted the man through the website in December 2021, believing that she was communicating with a man called Simon Timms, who she thought seemed genuine, magistrates heard.

He won her trust – before then callously claiming he was the victim of fraud and persuading the woman to loan him £2,000.

The cash was never repaid.

It later emerged that "Timms" was in fact 47-year-old Simon Turner, who told magistrates at Carlisle’s Rickergate court that at the time of his offending he had been in the grip of a powerful gambling addiction.

He admitted a fraud by false representation. Prosecutor Jackie Partington outlined the facts.

She described how after the woman’s husband has passed away in 2020, she initially had no desire to begin another relationship. But in December of the following year, she signed up for a dating website.

“She began speaking to a man she believed was Simon Timms,” said the lawyer.

“He seemed like a genuine person, and they had multiple phone calls and began to get closer. She began to confide in him.”

The woman told “Timms” about a tenanted property she owned where the tenant had not paid rent “for years.”

The tenant owed her £8,000, she revealed.

“Mr Timms offered to speak to the tenant to try to get the money paid back,” said Mrs Partington. “But on December 27, she received a message from Mr Timms, who appeared to be upset.

"He said he was having a meltdown.”

The defendant claimed he had been targeted by fraudsters and as a result he had to withdraw money from his Skipton Building Society account to pay his bills.

But because he had to give 14 days’ notice for the withdrawal, he said, he was unable to pay his bills. “She offered to lend him the money,” continued the prosecutor.

The defendant said he would repay her, but it would take five days for the money to clear.

He also told her that though he was £1,500 short of the cash he needed to settle his bills the building society had stipulated that the transfer would have to be £2,000.

She duly transferred that amount to Turner. After the money was in his account, he became evasive, and difficult to contact.

She was also contacted by her tenant, who said “Mr Turner” had been in touch and wanted the money that was owed to be transferred into his account. He later claimed he sometimes used the name “Turner.”

Turner became even more difficult to contact, claiming her would call the woman “later”.

“Ultimately, the money was not repaid,” said Mrs Partington.

The victim said she felt like an idiot, and had not believed such a thing could happen, especially to somebody who had been through the bereavement she had suffered.

Over a video link to the court, Turner, of Clements Close, Spencer’s Wood, Reading, said he wanted to make a statement to the court. He told magistrates: “I want to say that I’m deeply sorry about the situation.

“There are mitigating circumstances but that’s not an excuse. I’ve had a particularly bad gambling addiction.”

He said he had, however, put himself through a residential rehab programme last year.

He added: “I don’t feel very good about it at all. I have the means to pay [the victim] back and I’ll do that through the police officer.”

Mark Shepherd, defending, accepted that the offence was not an isolated event as far as Turner was concerned but said the defendant had not been convicted by a court for a number of years.

He asked the court for a pre-sentence report.

Magistrates agreed, ordering that the background report be written in preparation for a sentencing hearing which has been scheduled for December 19. In the meantime, Turner was granted bail.