Serial Internet Dater Swindled Women Out Of Hundreds Of Thousands Of Pounds

A heartless fraudster, who wined and dined six women he met online during an £639,0000 swindle, has been locked-up.

Keyur Vyas, 32, of East Ferry Road, Tower Hamlets, east London received six years and one month imprisonment when sentenced at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court.

An investigation into Vyas's activities was launched in October 2014.

He befriend women online with the pretence of building a relationship with them.

He wined and dined them and would trick them into believing he was an affluent man working in finance.

Vyas exploited cultural commonalities such as religion and his wish to start a family.

Once he gained their trust Vyas would encourage them to invest in various business ventures for a large return.

However, the ventures didn’t exist and he was gambling the money away.

He even continued to put pressure and was abusive to the victims to continue to invest more money in order to get their investment back.

He used fear tactics and stated that if they went to the police they would lose all their money.

Vyas pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation and two other charges will lie on file.

Detective Constable Andy Chapman, of the Central Specialist Command, said: “Vyas used a tried and tested technique to commit fraud.

“He used the trust he had gained to get them to invest in non-existent companies.

“He went as far as having fake contracts drawn up with outlandish conditions, but essentially he used the relationship to get their money”.

“Vyas was selfish and cruel in his actions by emotionally involving the victims and conning them out of a combined loss of approximately £639,133.00.

“Unfortunately we see cases like this fairly often and my advice to anyone in an online relationship whatever the nature is never to send personal details or money to someone who you have never met in person.”