'Real-life Tinder Swindler' conned woman out of £157,000 after meeting online

A 'real-life Tinder Swindler' who duped women out of hundreds of thousands of pounds - including £157,000 from one victim - has been jailed for four years.

Frank Adozi, 32, tricked the vulnerable women by claiming he was working on an oil rig and had taken the wrong bank card with him, asking to borrow money.

He then used the cash borrow from women he had to fund an expensive lifestyle, buying designer clothes, a Range Rover and jewellery.

The 32-year-old, of Sherwood, Nottingham, was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court for four years after pleading guilty to false representation.

The case will remind many of the popular Netflix film 'The Tinder Swindler', which focused on allegations that Simon Leviev had conned several women out of huge sums of money.

Nottinghamshire Police said Adozi used a fake profile on a dating website and presented himself as a middle-aged man called Michael McCarthy.

He scammed one victim, who had recently split from her partner, out of £157,352.25 over two months, spread over 34 transactions - claiming he needed to borrow money to cover travel costs and to send money to his daughter.

The woman, who expected Adozi to return the cash so she could buy a house, realised she had been scammed when he told her he was getting ready to board a British Airways flight from Dubai to the UK and she saw there were no flights between the destinations at that time.

She reported him to police in May 2021 and he was arrested in January after officers noticed he was a wanted fraudster during a traffic stop.

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Adozi's mobile phone was analysed and it was found he had targeted at least six other women, conning them out of a combined total of nearly £3,000.

Police said Adozi was a prolific fraudster who had previously been jailed for four-and-a-half years for similar offences but returned to his old ways after being released from prison in 2020.

On his dating profile, he described himself as 6ft tall, from Nottingham and 60. He added that he had a master's degree and was looking for a 'real relationship'.

Det Con Carl Miller, from Nottinghamshire Police’s fraud investigation team, said: "Adozi had no regard for his victims. He went to great lengths to build rapport and gain their trust, before fabricating stories to exploit them out of thousands.

"The fact that one victim lost £157,000 – money she planned to buy a house with – makes this one of the worst romance frauds we’ve ever come across. It is also a unique case in that the fraudster operated from the UK as opposed to being based overseas.

He added: "Fraudsters like Adozi target people in vulnerable situations and have no care that they may financially ruin their victims.

"In this case, a number of victims were identified who had not contacted police. We want to encourage all those who think they’ve been a victim of romance fraud to not feel embarrassed or ashamed but rather report it.

"Romance fraud is a particularly callous offence and Nottinghamshire Police will always seek to get justice for victims.

"We do this because not only do fraudsters inflict financial loss on their victims, they also cause an enormous amount of emotional hurt and pain."