Romance fraudster who was 'blinded by greed' jailed

A romance fraudster who conned men into spending tens of thousands of pounds to fund her lavish lifestyle has been jailed.

Model Gemma Kingsley, 50, was sentenced to seven years and seven months in prison at Swindon Crown Court earlier.

Across four years Kingsley, of Beadnell in Northumberland, tricked men into relationships and persuaded them to spend huge sums on her behalf as she claimed she was soon to inherit a large fortune.

Sentencing her, Judge Jason Taylor KC said: "Blinded by your greed you persistently and manipulatively pulled whatever lever you thought necessary to fund your extravagant lifestyle."

The court heard two of Kingsley's victims were recently divorced, and were emotionally vulnerable when they met her.

She told the victims she was soon to inherit about £80m from her late grandfather.

In a statement read out in court, one of her victims said: "I fear my daughter no longer looks up to me as she once did and that I am an untrustworthy and flawed parent.

"I am still struggling to come to terms with what Gemma did to me.

"I am suffering from crippling anxiety. I am trying to rebuild my life but I feel used and manipulated. I feel violated and betrayed."

As well as manipulating the men to spend large sums of money on her, Kingsley also stole or used false bank card details to pay thousands of pounds for hotel stays, including at a five-star Alpine resort in France, the court heard.

At a previous hearing, she pleaded guilty to six counts of theft, four counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of using a false instrument with intent that it will be accepted as genuine, and one count of being in possession of an article for use in fraud.

Taylor told Kingsley: "You are a conwoman who traded on her good looks to ensnare your victims.

"Your greed was insatiable. Your duplicity and brass neck is staggering. You were a well spoken, educated and glamorous serial fraudster."

He added: "Your lack of remorse was only matched by your guile in squeezing every last penny from one victim before moving on to the next."

Kingsley will have to serve half of her sentence in prison before being released on licence.

Det Con Chris Hemns, from Wiltshire Police, said it "was not easy to catch up" with Kingsley.

"We knew her identity," he added. "The problem we had, she is very transient, she would move frequently through different addresses.

"When she was served her summons she was in a little cottage up in Scotland.

"We've not seen many cases with a female suspect in this way. There's the Tinder Swindler, the way she operated was very similar."