‘I was looking for man to spend my life with but instead I found a con artist who stole thousands’

A victim of serial romance fraudster David Checkley - dubbed 'The Man With The Golden Tongue' - says she was duped while recovering from cancer. Angie Montana, 63, met Checkley on dating site Plenty of Fish in 2020 while in remission from stage two cancer. She was hoping for a man to spend her life with - but instead found a con artist who stole GBP3.2k from her.

Angie and Checkley, who was jailed for 11 years in late November, had a five-week relationship before she realised something was amiss. Her daughter encouraged her to Google David Cohen - the alias she had given him - but, drawing a blank, she turned to Action Fraud. This eventually resulted in Checkley's arrest, after Scotland Yard were notified.

The officers who investigated him later said he was "a prolific and systematic" fraudster. Angie, a kitchen business owner from Hertfordshire, had handed over GBP3,200 to Checkley, some of which she was able to get back. But she says the emotional toll is worse than the financial.

Angie said: "I feel like I'm double-grieving - the relationship was totally fake, and the sheer embarrassment of handing my money over. "One minute he was really charming - well dressed, polite - but when it came to me asking for my money back, he was like a different person." Angie had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2018 - she had six cycles of chemotherapy lasting from January to July 2019.

After six months in remission, she decided to try dating again and signed up for Plenty of Fish.

This was where she first came across Checkley. After seeing his profile, the pair struck up a conversation, and a few days later, they met in person for the first time. She said: "I saw Checkley on Plenty of Fish - the conversation was normal, there were no weird signs.

We asked each other about our lives: what we did, whether we had family. "It all seemed okay. After about four or five exchanges on the app, we swapped numbers - and soon after that, went on a date.

We went to Cafe Rouge - I arrived earlier than he did, feeling pretty nervous. "And then this tall, very charming man walked in. He was clean-shaven, dressed in a pair of jeans, a shirt and a dinner jacket.

"We laughed a lot - he told me he was an architect with grandkids. He just came across as a very charismatic family man. Then he gave me a kiss on the cheek, and we said goodbye."

Three days later, Checkley took Angie to another restaurant, footing the GBP70 bill himself and telling her stories about his business deals. Over the following four weeks, the couple would text each other every day, and he'd regularly visit Angie's house, driving a different car each time. "He started talking to me about how much he fancied me," she added. "He'd text things like, 'I can feel love in the air'.

I thought, what absolute rubbish." But then, while driving to work one morning, Angie received a call from Checkley saying he needed a spare GBP3,200 for window installations in a "mansion" he was building. He told Angie he wasn't able to borrow from his son as he was in Frankfurt at the time.

Despite her gut feeling telling her something was wrong, Checkley promised to return the money 48 hours later - so Angie sent it to him to help out. She said: "The bank details he sent me were under the name of 'Brown' - I queried this, but he told me it was going directly to the window supplier. "I took him at face value and I believed him.

He'd been forthcoming, sending me his email address so I could get hold of him while he was out of the country. My bank asked me all sorts of security questions - after a good grilling from them, I sent it, thinking I'd get it back the next day." The next day, Checkley FaceTimed Angie from 'Dubai'.

He told her he'd send the money back to her within a few hours. But when Angie sent him a text reminder that evening he dropped out of contact. "I was texting and texting," she said. "The only time he replied to me was the next morning, when he told me to 'stop sending these ridiculous texts'.

"From that point, I made him stay in touch, because I wanted my money back." She sent numerous frantic texts over the following weeks, but Angie never received the GBP3.2k back from the conman. It was then that she told her daughter about Checkley - who told her to report it to Action Fraud. Angie said: "My daughter told me to go back over my emails, and we'd try to figure out whose email address he was using.

"I immediately rang Action Fraud, and reported the scam to my bank, who were able to pay GBP1.6k back. In the time between ringing Action Fraud and Checkley being arrested, I was designated a female police officer, who supported me. "I gave three statements - one to her and a series of other officers who came to the house, one to Cheshunt East and one to the Met.

It was a long time before I heard anything back - to be honest, I started to lose my confidence in the police. "But the investigation leader called me one afternoon - after a long spell of not hearing anything. He told me Checkley had got off a plane and they'd arrested him straight away.

It helped with the stress - but I was in a real state, mentally, at the time, with a multitude of things going through my head." Checkley, 65, was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment at the Old Bailey on November 29 after being found guilty of 19 counts of fraud and one count of theft. Ten female victims gave evidence during an eight-week trial.

The court heard that the conman - called "The Man With The Golden Tongue" at a previous trial - had defrauded at least 10 victims out of approximately GBP100k. But, even though he's behind bars, Angie feels traumatised by how she was treated - and struggled to trust men she's dating. She said: "I wanted to withdraw from the case so many times, but it's about protecting women.

I've had therapy, I'm in counselling and I listen to all those self-help podcasts. But he still impacts everything." Detective Superintendent John Roch, from the Met's Economic Crime Team, said: "Our determination remains resolute in ensuring that offenders like Checkley are held accountable and brought to justice.

There is no doubt that Checkley is a prolific and systematic fraudster who spun a web of lies to his victims. "He abused the honest intentions of his victims in the most callous way. He is a fantasist who claimed to lead an enviable lifestyle but in reality, he is a criminal who deceived innocent people for his own financial gain.

"Most importantly, I want to commend the women who came forward to report Checkley.

They have shown incredible strength for following their instincts when something felt amiss and then reporting him to police.

"Romance fraud is a crime that has both an emotional and financial impact on victims and I hope that the sentencing can begin to give some closure to the women in this case."