Mark Tuthill pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud and was jailed for two years and four months
A predatory love-rat fleeced almost £20,000 out of three vulnerable women after spinning a web of lies and pretending he was a high-flying barrister.
Mark Tuthill claimed he was a barrister with the Crown Prosecution Service, said he had a £600,000 house, and pretended to own a race horse.
But Newcastle Crown Court heard that in reality, the 48-year-old was forced to live in hostels.
The court heard he met two of his victims on dating website Plenty of Fish, while a third was running a village Post Office in Northumberland when she fell for his charms.
As he jailed him for two years and four months, the judge said Tuthill ‘weaseled his way into the affections’ of the women before ‘systematically financially and emotionally violating’ them.
Prosecutor Neil Pallister added: ‘All three were told lies about his financial situation. He extracted money from them and preyed on their vulnerability.’
The first victim, in her 30s, got to know 6ft 7in Tuthill as he called into the post office she was running while he was working on a building site nearby.
She had suffered a traumatic time in her life when he began to target her.
Mr Pallister said: ‘He told her what were undoubted lies, and she believed him, about having a house in Durham or Sunderland and that he had £50,000 tied up in an ISA account.
‘He gave the impression he was a wealthy man but said his savings were tied up and used that as an excuse to supposedly borrow money. He clearly had no intention of paying it back.’
Tuthill told the woman he needed to loan £3,000 to buy a van for his business.
Mr Pallister said: ‘She believed him. He said everything would work out and they would live happily ever after.
Tuthill met two of his victims on dating website Plenty of Fish, while a third ‘fell for his charms’ in the Post Office
‘She gave him money for hotel bills and he would promise to pay half back but that never materialised.
‘One Christmas, he said he had no money for presents for a son he had and he borrowed upwards of £1,000.
‘She was later told his partner stopped him having access to his son and she agreed to pay £500 which he told her was going towards legal expenses so he could see his son.’
In total the woman says she gave £5,921 to Tuthill on the understanding he would pay her back. He says the value of the fraud was more like £3,200 and claims to have done work for her valued at £2,500.
When the relationship petered out, she tried remaining friends with him in order to get her money back but whenever he arranged to meet her to supposedly settle up, he cancelled or fobbed her off.
She said: ‘He could see my vulnerability as an opportunity to manipulate me and extract money. That makes me feel sick.
‘I believed he was a good guy. He spoon-fed me a pack of lies. He convinced me I should be getting married and having children. He left me utterly bereft.
‘I was taken advantage of financially and sexually. I feel disgusted I have been intimate with a person capable of doing what he had done.’
Tuthill met his second victim, a 41-year-old special needs teacher who had had gastric band surgery, on Plenty of Fish in July 2015 and spun her a catalogue of lies.
Mr Pallister told the court: ‘He told her he was a successful barrister with the CPS, working in a specialist department, that he owned a house in Gosforth and a race horse.
‘He persuaded her to give him money towards funding the race horse he claimed he had and she transferred £1,000.
‘He told her he was a successful lawyer with a monthly income of £14,380 and was expecting a lump sum of £50,000.
‘Sadly, she believed his lies. During the relationship she continued to give him money.
‘He said he would get a substantial sum on retirement which would secure their financial future together. She never got the money back.’
Her last contact with Tuthill was in November 2015 and she reported him missing when contact ceased.
The woman says she handed over a total of £10,200.
She said in a victim statement: ‘With the issues I had I was over the moon I had met him. He was kind, attractive and wanted a family and to get married.
‘I believed what he told me, that’s why I constantly transferred money. He has ruined me financially, emotionally and psychologically.’
Tuthill formed a relationship with 48-year-old woman he met on Plenty of Fish around the same time, in May 2015.
After they started dating, she discovered she had breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy.
Prosecutors say the total value of Tuthill’s con wasin the region of around £19,678.95
Mr Pallister said: ‘The defendant was very attentive and visited her in hospital but clearly then became interested in the amount of money her daughter had saved for a flat or house of her own.
‘He spun a story that he would like to help her out financially.
‘He told the daughter he was selling his house in Gosforth for £600,000 and he would use some of that money to buy the house for her.’
Tuthill persuaded the 24-year-old daughter to transfer £3,492 of her £10,000 savings to him to pay off her debts, but she never saw her money again.
She said: ‘I’m really annoyed, he preyed on my mother when she was fighting a terrible disease.
‘I’m in shock he would prey on someone with cancer when his own father had the same illness.
‘Me and my mother don’t suffer fools which just highlights how calculating he has been in what he did to me and my family.’
Tuthill, of no fixed address, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud.
Prosecutors say the total value was £19,678.95 but the defence argue it was closer to £13,000. He was jailed for two years and four months.
Peter Walsh, defending, said: ‘He used false accounts about himself because of his desperation to get money. He was running into financial difficulties.
‘For the last few years he has lived on the verges of society, living in hostels.’
One of Mark Tuthill’s devastated victims said he was so clever at what he did, he even avoided leaving any social media footprint in his wake.
And now she wants his photograph printed so other women can be on their guard if he tried to strike again when he gets out of prison.
The 38-year-old victim said: ‘At the beginning he really convinced me that he really loved me and wanted to marry me. But it is so horrible to think he milked me for what he could get.
‘He would come in and chat. It went on for about a year, he came in every day and we built up a rapport.
‘I didn’t see him for about six months, until one day he appeared at the shop with a substantial bunch of flowers.
‘He asked me out and he took me on a very nice date to York. He was all fun and very respectful.
‘He was very nice and came across very well. He was clever and picked up what you liked and reflected that back at you. He was very clever.
‘At the time I was quite lonely and regarded myself that I wouldn’t meet anyone again and by talking to me he gleaned the information he needed.
‘I still feel stupid. I’m really absolutely gutted and sickened he did this to me and others.’
The victim, who has rebuilt her life away from Northumberland, added: ‘Eventually I started suspecting that he was lying.
‘He never let me meet his family and there would always be an excuse why I couldn’t. That was when alarm bells started ringing. I never met anyone who was close to him.
‘Meetings were supposed to happen and they were cancelled or something else would happen. There was always an excuse.
‘I gave him £3,000 for a van and I never saw any of that again. He said he needed presents for his son and I gave him around £1,000. He was full of promises.
‘It is a sad state of affairs, I don’t know of his family and it’s sad for his family that he’s been taken away from them. It is a very sad and pathetic way to make money.
‘He was a bright man, very cleaver, he would have probably made something good of himself if he’d put that effort into something else, rather than manipulating people to make money.
‘Him being jailed can help me draw a line under this now and help me move on.’