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| Jailed: Emotional Blackmailer Nalini Jayaweera |
Sri Lankan Nalini Jayaweera, 69, promised the devastated victims huge returns from a non-existent property empire, but has now been branded as a “cancer in the community.”
One woman was pestered for more money while sitting at her dying father’s bedside and another “humiliated” victim was forced to work twenty-one hour days to recoup his secret losses.
Former hotel manager Jayaweera - known as ’Nellie’ to friends - of Stretton Road, Addiscome, Croydon pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud between January, 2010 and December, 2019 and received six years imprisonment.
She spun convincing lies of needing money to pay fees to lawyers and HMRC to release a £3.7m inheritance, to fund a non-existent aunt’s brain surgery and make lucrative gold and diamond investments.
Her victims included her regular mini-cab drivers, her gardener and a mum she met at the private school gates, where her grandson was a pupil, Isleworth Crown court heard.
She convinced Martin Georgiev, 41, her cousin would fund treatment for his five year-old son’s cerebral palsy and provide an annual family holiday in return for a £10,000 investment.
The family needed a bank loan to raise the money, which was eventually returned by Jayaweera when they threatened to call the police.
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| Swindled: Ken Negus |
“She said the £10,000 scheme would return £5,000 per year to be spent on their son’s treatment and a family holiday and that they should take out a loan for the money.”
The father, whose son needs a wheelchair and feeding tube, said in his victim impact statement: “She embedded herself into our lives and we thought she was a lovely lady.
“She presented herself as our saviour, but I was so gullible and naive. I thought our son would have £5,000 per year, but it was money for Nalini and I have continued to struggle to pay bills for our son.”
Her regular mini-cab driver, Ken Negus, 67, was targeted for £211,000 and lost the most money - over £150,000 - which he kept secret from his wife while working all-hours.
He regularly drove her grandson to school and was promised a “safe investment” that would double his money by Jayaweera, who claimed she was due an inheritance worth millions of pounds.
“She said she needed cash because her assets were outside the UK tax system, but that money was used to fund her lifestyle, not to make investments,” explained the prosecutor.
The mini-cab driver used his own mortgage funds to pay Jayaweera, who told him she needed extra funds to send her brain cancer-stricken aunt to Singapore for life-saving treatment.
“I thought she was a very close friend, but she was a fraud and a con artist,” said Mr Negus in his victim statement. “My world imploded and her frauds were like a cancer in the community.”
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| Leaving Sentencing: Martin Georgiev |
It is thanks to amateur sleuth Mr Negus the huge scale of the multiple frauds and all the victims were identified. “The humiliation was intolerable and this has taken years off of our lives,” he said.
Both gardener Michael Strudwick and his wife Wendy were targeted by mother-of-two Jayaweera for £162,700. “She told him she owned various properties in Maidstone and had been diagnosed with cancer,” said Mr Mather.
She quickly returned the first £500 she borrowed from her gardener. “That repayment was to engender trust and a pattern emerged of asking for money weekly for solicitors fees while ‘selling’ her Sri Lankan properties.
“These were lies, there are no properties and no inheritance and she emotionally blackmailed him, waiting at his bank branch in tears, claiming her Sri Lanka house would be lost.”
Her repayment cheques to Mr Strudwick bounced four times. “She said her purse had been stolen and she was the victim of fraud and forged a letter from her bank.
“Behind his back she extracted money from his wife, using a Tsunami as an excuse why her property had not sold and forged a HMRC letter.
“The couple ended up paying for Jayaweera and her family to enjoy a holiday to the Isle of Wight and her grandchild’s private school fees,” added the prosecutor.
Wendy was at her dying father’s bedside, but Jayaweera’s pursuit for money continued. “The defendant exploited her knowledge of this and went to the hospital and asked for money.
“She gave more false sob stories that she had a stroke and that her husband had just died even though he is still alive today.”
Recorder Neil Mercer announced: “She used emotional blackmail and of the many dishonest and inexcusable lies she told to trick honest, good people out of money, this perhaps is the meanest.”
The couple’s eventual loss was £36,000.
In his victim statement Mr Strudwick said: “People think we have been naive or stupid and I do not tell anyone anymore. The stress is immense and we have trouble eating and sleeping and are completely traumatised.
“She completely abused our trust and good nature and this is a large sum of our life savings taken by someone we invited into out home.
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| School Gates Victim: Laura Bingham |
“We are good Christian people and now find it hard to trust anyone. Who would do this? Someone with no morals wanting to rip people off.
“She would swear on family members’ lives and bring up religion. I want to tell the world how manipulative she is, she tricked us and took advantage when my wife’s father was dying.
“Wendy was too vulnerable to say no to more money and the next day her father died.”
His wife said: “I thought she was a friend and my faith in humanity has dropped like a brick. She preyed on our weaknesses and the moment she stole was for our retirement.
“She is a predator who preys on the vulnerable and swore on her daughter’s and grandson’s lives. She is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and is forceful and manipulative.”
Victim Florian Bardosi is also a mini-cab driver, who Jayaweera “promised a 100% profit” if he invested in her gold and diamonds scheme, obtaining £3,000 from him.
School mum Laura Bingham ‘loaned’ Jayaweera £15,000 after initially been asked for £75,000 to release the inheritance and only got £5,000 back.
“The victim thought the defendant was wealthy and a lovely friendly person,” said Mr Mather, adding Ms Bingham did find an online report of of one of Jayaweera’s previous deceptions.
In 2002 she received a suspended prison sentence for seven counts of deception on a work colleague and in 2003, twelve months imprisonment for deception.
However, Jayaweera convinced her that was somebody else with the same name.
“She was like an extended mother to me, who I trusted for four years and was a trusted an close friend and exploited this to deceive me,” explained Ms Bingham in a victim statement.
“It was a calculated scheme to extract money and has left me emotionally shattered and traumatised. The emotional trauma she inflicted cannot be calculated.”
Recorder Mercer said: “She was also subject to emotional blackmail and lies and told that without the money a relative’s life-support machine would be turned off.”
Fellow Sri Lankan mini-cab driver Sithamparathevan Appasamy was another victim, who believed Jayaweera owned a tea estate in her homeland.
She convinced him to raise money amongst his own family to pay her legal fees and a total of £105,000 was handed over, never to be seen again.
None of the cash has been recovered for any victim and Jayaweera has no seizable assets. “There are no confiscation proceedings, the defendant has spent all of the money,” added the prosecutor.
Jayaweera’s lawyer Mustapha Hake told the court: “She comes from a relatively wealthy family. Her father owned a rubber plantation, a tea estate and was the MD of a paper mill and involved in politics.”
She moved to the UK in 1984. “She lost her wealth, land, business assets, everything and is now incredibly frail.”
Jayaweera shuffled into court with the aid of a walking stick, but Recorder Mercer noted: “She has shown extraordinary levels of dishonesty and manipulation.
“Why should I accept that since these frauds ended she has deteriorated to this extent?
“Each witness describes being given constant and detailed emotionally distressing stories and they thought she was a really good friend in real need and they were doing their best to help someone.
“The defendant has previous convictions exactly the same kind of offending on friends and acquaintances and that is a serious aggravating feature.
“She is a deeply dishonest and thoroughly manipulative individual.”
