Grandmother with young Nigerian lover is ‘being scammed’

A grandmother-of-six who married a Nigerian man 45 years her junior is being ‘scammed’ by a man who ‘just wants to get into the country’, her ex-husband claimed today.

Donald Neate, 71, described his former partner Angela Nwachukwu, 72, as ‘gullible’ and said she has ‘got herself into a problem that she will have to deal with’.

Mrs Nwachukwu, from Weymouth, Dorset, is fighting for a visa for new husband CJ Nwachukwu, 27, who she married three months after he added her on Facebook and struck up a conversation. 

Angela Nwachukwu, 72, is fighting for a visa for new husband CJ Nwachukwu, 27, who she married three months after he added her on Facebook and struck up a conversation

They live 4,000 miles away and met face-to-face for the first time on their wedding day, but his application for a visa has been refused.

Retired taxi driver Mrs Nwachukwu has spent £20,000 on him, including lawyers to help with the visas and flights to visit him, but says he had repaid her half.

Mr Neate, a former lorry driver from Bristol, said: ‘We separated 18 years ago and haven’t had any contact since.

‘The first time I knew about it was when I read the papers. She has been scammed by a man who just wants to get into the country.’

Mr Neate remarried twice since his five-year relationship with Mrs Nwachukwu were together for five years.

He added: ‘She has done it now and will have to deal with the consequences.’

Mrs Nwachukwu said she couldn’t help but fall for her lover from Nigeria, when they started talking, and is devastated that their applications for visas have failed.

She told The Sun she had been left lonely and isolated after the breakdown of her marriage, six months before they met online.

The couple live 4,000 miles away and met face-to-face for the first time on their wedding day, but his application for a visa has been refused

The couple live 4,000 miles away and met face-to-face for the first time on their wedding day, but his application for a visa has been refused

One day she found a message and a friend request from Mr Nwachukwu, and couldn’t see the harm in striking up conversation.

She said: ‘He was so handsome, with big, brown eyes and a body to match.

‘We chatted for hours about our families and hobbies. It was like we’d known each other for years. Before I knew it, we were messaging daily.

‘Despite our huge age gap, we got on really well. I couldn’t help it and began to develop feelings for him. I tried to stop myself.’

To her surprise, he popped the question on Skype, and she gleefully accepted.

The pair wed in Lagos, Nigeria, and have since seen each other twice, as she has flown there to visit him.

Mr Nwachukwu has even been denied a tourist visa to see his wife, and their applications have been turned down because it’s thought they won’t have financial backing. 

Despite criticisms, Mrs Nwachukwu insists the marriage is not a scam, because she doesn’t have any money and was upfront about that at the start. 

She hopes he will join her in Britain on a student visa

Mrs Nwachukwu said she has spent £20,000 on lawyers to help bring him over on a visa, and that her husband has always paid her back

She now hopes he will be able to get a student visa for a Masters, to be reunited with her. British citizens can apply for a Family visa to move their partners to the UK. 

It’s an expensive process – the Home Office charges £1,464 for people applying from outside the UK to joining their partners or spouses, and nearly £1,000 for extensions.

PROVING YOUR INCOME FOR A VISA 

An application for a partner to join a spouse in the UK must prove they can support themselves.

Applicants should prove an annual income of £18,600 between them.

Those with children should prove they will earn an extra £3,800 for their first child, and then £2,400 for their second child and any other children. 

Savings can also prove income, but applicants have to have cash savings of £16,000. 

Pensions count, as does money earned from renting out a property. 

Those willing to part with a few hundred pounds more can get the premium extension service. 

Spouses applying to move to be with their partners have to prove they can support themselves and their partners, and they have to have been living with them for two years. 

Partners will then be given permission to move for around two and a half years and should extend this after that time.  

Mr Nwachukwu has to be able to show he can support himself or be supported to be granted a Marriage Visitor visa, by the rules of the Home Office.

Under the visa for visitors, the trip must be no longer than six months, and applicants should prove they will leave at the end. 

Two years ago, Julie Dag from Bournemouth told of how she was duped into spending £20,000 after falling for local musician Lamin Sidibeh while on holiday in The Gambia in West Africa in 2007.

Appearing on a Channel 5 documentary, she revealed that she had married him, before spending her honeymoon filling in visa applications. But within three months of returning to England and setting up home, he had left her. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk