A 60-year-old man from Liverpool, England, who wanted to marry a man he met on the internet, has been jailed for two years after he gave her nearly £1million from his job instead.
“You didn’t get a penny for what you did. At that point, it was clear that you were being taken advantage of. A lot of damage has been caused by your dishonest actions. The court also accepts that a lot of harm has been done to you,” Judge David Aubrey of Liverpool Crown Court told The Mirror on Tuesday.
Manjit Singh, 60, pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud by abuse of office, which earned him a two-year jail term on Tuesday.
Originally from Malaysia, the 60-year-old was working at a law firm in Liverpool, England, when she fell in love with a man she met online, with whom she chatted four to five times a day and promised marriage. .
That’s when he allegedly asked her for “a few thousand pounds” and promised to pay her back quickly, before asking her for more.
In total, she would have sent him over 958,180 pounds sterling, or $1,630,000 Canadian.
“She was told that she was beautiful, that he would take care of her, that they were in love. I don’t understand how she could be so innocent. At the time, she was going through a very difficult time. There were a number of factors that made her seem ripe for exploitation,” defense counsel Gwen Henshaw said, according to British media. .
The woman reportedly suffered from “long-term” mental health issues after her partner left her for another woman while battling cancer in 2019, The Mirror reported.
Despite the judge’s mercy on him, the court sentenced him to two years in prison for stealing a large sum of money.
