Tina Roberts posed as a hairdresser and lied about having celebrity clients to mostly elderly clients before making them part with huge swathes of cash, ranging between £225 to £2,550
A notorious fraudster labelled the ‘devil in disguise’ after scamming customers out of thousands of pounds has been jailed.
Tina Roberts posed as a hairdresser and lied about having celebrity clientele to mostly elderly customers before making them part with huge swathes of cash, ranging between £225 to £2,550.
The 38-year-old, nicknamed the ‘Black Widow’, would ask them for loans with the promise of doubling their money, but she instead scammed seven women out of more than £13,000 between 2015 and 2016.
Roberts, from Bristol, admitted to ten charges of fraud and was jailed for two years and three months.
It is not her first sentence, as in 2011 she was convicted seven years ago of fleecing a terminally ill cancer patient and her own friends in a £1 million scam.
The mother-of-one posed as the England rugby team’s physiotherapist, using borrowed and stolen money to fund extravagant holidays to the Seychelles and South Africa.
The brazen criminal claimed she got the job after saving the life of former England coach Sir Clive Woodward by performing a tracheotomy at a school match – something which Martin Robinson, another former England coach, described as ‘nonsense’.
Her most recent stunt involved her portraying herself as a celebrity hairdresser, prosecutor Simon Goodman said.
Howard Palmer QC told Roberts upon sentencing: ‘Your victims in many cases were particularly vulnerable, by reason of disability that left them housebound.
‘You conned them by your lies that you were running a successful hairdressing business, which listed celebrities among its clients.’
Philis King, 63, from Barnstaple, Devon, revealed she was conned out of £2,420.40 by the woman she dubbed ‘the Black Widow’.
Mrs King told the Bristol Post: ‘I feel upset, betrayed and very bitter towards her.
‘She is the Black Widow. She will spin you a web of lies.
‘The money was going to be used to take my mum, who is in her 80s, on holiday.’
Another victim, Tulisa White, 43, from Bristol, was scammed out of £2,000.
She said: ‘I thought the sentence would be a lot harsher.
The 38-year-old (pictured here after her arrest in 2011) has been sentenced again after she confessed to ten charges of fraud and jailed for two years and three months
‘The fraud against me was £2,000 and meant our children had nothing for Christmas. I’m hacked off.’
Another victim, Alison Coates, from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, lost £225 from the scam.
The 44-year-old said: ‘I don’t think the sentence was enough.
‘I couldn’t pay my care bill and couldn’t buy Christmas presents.’
And mother-of-two Jaine Foster, who lost £1,8000, said: ‘She’s very sweet, very charming, very manipulative and cunning. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
‘I would say she is a devil in disguise.’
Other victims include Danielle Marriott, who lost £1,750, Lisa Wood, who was conned out of £2,500 and Shelley Hutchinson, who lost £2,550.
Simon Cooper, defending, said Roberts had set up a legitimate business and planned to pay back investors. He cited that some money had been repaid, with £10,500 outstanding.