Love Cheats Episode 2 - Fireman Scam
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm going to start off by showing you a photograph of Colin Greenwood and somebody by the name
00:21of James Scott.
00:22Do you accept that that's you?
00:23You are correct.
00:24Were you in a relationship with Colin?
00:25You are correct.
00:26Did you tell Colin that you were a fireman?
00:27You are correct.
00:28In March 2015, she fell pregnant.
00:29Were you the father of the child?
00:30You are correct.
00:31It's time to own up and put your hands up to what you've done.
00:32A woman from the Northeast was duped by a man she met online who lied about his identity.
00:52James Scott was a very charismatic man.
00:56It was almost like a dream.
00:59He had the wool over everybody's eyes.
01:01The lengths he went to.
01:02It was just incredible.
01:04No one could be prepared for what he did.
01:08No one.
01:22Right, OK.
01:29Back in 2014, I was a divorced mum of two girls.
01:34I'd been married for 17 years,
01:36so being single again was quite a new experience.
01:44Some of my friends had said,
01:45you know, why don't you try a dating website?
01:48Dip your toe back in the water.
01:50And I thought, you know, it might be nice to meet someone,
01:52go on a few dates.
01:55I don't think I particularly got a type.
01:58Just somebody that would make me laugh,
02:00that was kind, family-orientated.
02:03That's really important.
02:05You don't have to have bulging muscles and tattoos
02:08and a designer beard.
02:11It's all about being the nice guy.
02:21The world of dating, since I'd previously dated,
02:24had changed.
02:25I was quite unnerved by it.
02:30A lot of pictures of men with fish, for some bizarre reason.
02:33Quite a few men that I would say were economical with the truth
02:36about how tall they potentially were.
02:38All sorts.
02:41Sunday afternoon, I thought, I'll check my messages,
02:44and the particular one pinged up.
02:47Firefighter J has messaged you.
02:54Didn't have a photograph on it,
02:56but he said because of his job as a firefighter,
02:58it was frowned upon somewhat to have your pictures out there
03:01because of that job.
03:02And it sounded feasible,
03:03and as soon as I asked him for some photographs,
03:05he sent me probably five or six photos through.
03:08So, you know, there was no reason to ask for any more questions
03:12to why he hadn't.
03:14I first heard about James at work one day, calling.
03:17Just said, oh, there's this guy I've been chatting to online,
03:20and he seems really nice.
03:22One afternoon at work, he messaged my phone.
03:27I asked my sister, because I worked with him,
03:29she's like, why not? What have you got to lose?
03:37He did a lot of the talking, but the time flew past.
03:41He talked a lot about his two daughters,
03:44a real doting father, which was a massive tick for me.
03:49You could tell he was really passionate about being a firefighter.
03:56Throughout the relationship, he would turn up after shift
03:59in his fire gear, which was really nice.
04:03You'd smell it as he came in the house, the smell of smoke.
04:06It was what defined him, really.
04:08One instance, he'd saved a little boy.
04:13He'd jumped out of a burning building with a little boy in his arms,
04:16broken his back in the process.
04:21He had this card from the little boy that he'd made specially for him,
04:25calling him his hero.
04:27It made your heart swell.
04:29I used to keep this on my desk at work.
04:32I could look at it and think, well, I might not be able to see him today
04:35cos he's working, but he's helping people.
04:39Dating a firefighter is really nice,
04:41but it does come with some negatives as well.
04:48There'll be times that dates will be cut short
04:51or there'll be extra shifts they have to go in on.
04:54I understood that, I appreciated that.
04:57He was thoughtful, he would send me lovely text messages.
05:01He was sweet and he was kind and he made you feel cherished.
05:08We didn't see that much of each other because his shift patterns,
05:12we didn't spend many full nights together.
05:17But that was fine by me, I was quite happy to split my time with him,
05:21with my girls, with my friends.
05:25My girls were actually asking to meet him.
05:28He's got a boyish charm about him, I'd say,
05:31and I remember that after initially meeting him,
05:34he said to me, he said,
05:36he's got a boyish charm about him,
05:38and I said, well, he's got a boyish charm about him,
05:41and I said, well, he's got a boyish charm about him.
05:44I remember that after initially meeting him,
05:46saying, yeah, he's a good guy, Mum,
05:48yeah, we'd be happy for you to date him.
06:02I knew a lot about his girls, I saw so many pictures.
06:08I would hear him on the phone at times to his girls, talking to them.
06:15MUSIC
06:19James's girls were due to move abroad to the States,
06:22to Texas, with James's ex-wife.
06:24He was devastated and he was sad.
06:28Seeing James so upset resonated with me
06:30because if I thought my girls were going to move
06:32to the other side of the world, it would tear my heart out,
06:35so I really felt for him.
06:45My sister and I are so close.
06:48Growing up, we were inseparable.
06:51She's been with me since the womb, you know,
06:53we came into the world together,
06:55and you can't get any closer than that, really.
07:00We worked together, we socialised together.
07:03It was really important to me that Karen liked James.
07:09We went out and I took James to meet my sister
07:12and her boyfriend at the time, Ryan, who's now her husband.
07:16So the first time I met James, we were sitting having a pub quiz,
07:19and he bounded in, you know, making an entrance,
07:22everybody turned to look.
07:24In he came, big and loud, and sat down with Karen and I.
07:29James Scott was a very charismatic man.
07:31He would go into a room and within five minutes
07:35everyone would be his best friend.
07:37You couldn't help but be intoxicated by him
07:40because he was just charming.
07:44We'd been dating for a few months.
07:47He'd met my family, we were going on nice days out.
07:50At that point, I realised that I loved him
07:53and couldn't imagine him not being a big part of my life.
08:03Our relationship was going from strength to strength.
08:06We got on, we were having a nice time.
08:08Neither of us ever talked about wanting to have any more children.
08:13Quite the opposite.
08:15I'd had quite a difficult delivery with my last child
08:18and more children weren't on the agenda for me, and he said the same.
08:22We were careful, but obviously things happen
08:25and we can't be careful enough.
08:27I found out I was pregnant.
08:29She was really torn.
08:31She didn't know what to do, but she knew
08:33that it wasn't the right time in her life to have another baby.
08:36I decided, and James totally backed me and agreed,
08:39that I should get a termination.
08:47Sorry.
08:49This is the one bit that really upsets me. Sorry.
08:55I'm so sorry.
08:57Sorry.
09:01I didn't think I'd do this.
09:07It was something we should have been there to support each other,
09:11but he had a shift and he couldn't get out of it,
09:14so he went to work and I stayed alone that night when it happened
09:20and the baby was no more.
09:37After the termination, I was really fearful.
09:40I didn't want to have any sort of physical relationship.
09:43I couldn't put myself through another termination.
09:45I just couldn't have done it.
09:48So James decided that he should get a vasectomy
09:52and then we wouldn't ever have to face that problem ever happening again.
10:00After the procedure, he was in a bit of discomfort.
10:03He had a little bit of bruising down below.
10:06It was so many weeks later that he showed me on his phone
10:10the results of a medical report in his name
10:13showing that he'd had a newspoon count.
10:17There was no fear any more, so we could start a relationship again.
10:33It was a lovely evening, but I just didn't feel right.
10:38I took Karen to one side and said,
10:40this sounds really stupid, but I think I might be pregnant.
10:44And she hooted with laughter.
10:46You've had a dodgy prawn in your linguine, that's all it is.
10:49Don't worry about it.
10:52James went to the little Tesco's at the bottom of the street
10:55and got her pregnancy test for me.
10:57Went in to the loo, did the test.
11:01Colleen came back from the toilets and she looked ashen-faced.
11:06She, you know, she just looked in shock.
11:09And she sat down at the table and said, I'm pregnant.
11:20I did four more tests that evening.
11:24It just couldn't be right,
11:26but then five tests couldn't be wrong, could they?
11:34I just remember saying to James,
11:36oh, my God, everyone's going to think I've cheated on you.
11:39He just said, I know you wouldn't do that, Colleen.
11:42You know, I trust you implicitly.
11:47I thought to myself, what an amazing guy.
11:50He wouldn't even cross his mind that I'd be unfaithful to him.
11:55He said that everyone in so many vasectomies failed
12:01and he went on to say that...
12:04Sorry.
12:08He went on to say that it was the original baby,
12:11we'd made a mistake, it was the original baby coming back
12:14because we shouldn't have done it.
12:17Because we shouldn't have done what we dared.
12:21That it was a gift from God.
12:27I was 41 years old.
12:29I'd had a difficult pregnancy previously.
12:31I didn't want any more children.
12:34But I got no choice, cos I couldn't...
12:37I couldn't not go through with it.
12:42So when Colleen fell pregnant again,
12:45I thought, the vasectomy is final, what's going on here?
12:49I didn't know what was going on here.
13:14It was James and Mars' second Christmas together
13:17There was just a funny atmosphere in the room.
13:20The girls were a little bit giddier than normal.
13:22And do you know when you think there's something going on here,
13:24but I don't know what it is.
13:26And then James is saying, oh, that tree look a bit odd.
13:30And there was a little black book sitting in the branches.
13:33It said, Colleen Scott's wedding diary
13:35on the front of the little book.
13:37And James turned around and looked at him,
13:40and he just said, will you marry me?
13:43Turned out he'd already been and spoken to my sister
13:45and my mom.
13:47And this book had the whole wedding planned.
13:52And he opened one, it would say, wedding cake tasting.
13:55And there'd be one initial dress fitting,
13:58and meet the wedding planner, and all the way
14:01through to marry me at this time and date at Wynyard Hall,
14:05and then the honeymoon to Vegas, and the hotel
14:09we were stopping at.
14:10The whole wedding was arranged.
14:12In a family full of women, grandmother, mother, daughters,
14:16to have another man, it was a nice change.
14:20He was such a big part of our lives.
14:22We loved him.
14:23And what could be better than them getting married?
14:39It was a life and death moment for herself and for the baby.
14:47Doors were being flung open.
14:49I was being whizzed down a corridor.
14:50There's just the lights flashing past me.
14:54It's just, it's a chaos.
14:57I think, really, I was just selfishly scared
14:59I was going to lose my twin.
15:03It was just awful.
15:05I remember waking up, and my sister
15:08being beside me at the bed.
15:09I don't know where James was at this point.
15:12The first thing I said to Karen was, where's my baby?
15:17Just calm down.
15:18He's OK.
15:19They've taken him to special care baby unit.
15:21He's going to be all right.
15:27I remember I was just so scared.
15:29I was just so scared.
15:30I was just so scared.
15:31I was just so scared.
15:32I was just so scared.
15:34Within, maybe, another week, they discharged him back home,
15:37which was amazing.
15:46It was a really happy day when we could finally
15:48go and register Charlie's birth.
15:55Proud that he was all legal, and in this world, and safe.
15:59This is actually Charlie's birth certificate.
16:03And it's got James Scott, the father, occupation firefighter.
16:12James was amazing with Charlie.
16:19He was my doting dad.
16:21He was always there for me.
16:23He was always there for me.
16:24He was always there for me.
16:25He was always there for me.
16:27He was my doting dad.
16:29He played with him.
16:30The girls loved Charlie.
16:32And we were just a happy, settled family.
16:37It was a really lovely, happy time.
16:43Quite a while into our relationship,
16:45we decided to have a day out and took a trip to Alton Towers.
16:53We were waiting to go on one particular ride
16:55when this guy came over to James, obviously knowing him,
16:58and said, you all right, Wilson?
17:02And I'm thinking, that's a weird thing to say.
17:04So I said, that was odd.
17:07Why did he call you Wilson?
17:08He went, oh, it's being a firefighter.
17:10We all have nicknames for each other.
17:12So they used to always say, where there's a will,
17:14there's a way.
17:15So my nickname was Will.
17:17And he just said, Will, you all right, Wilson, as you would?
17:20And I'm like, all right, OK.
17:22And both my daughter and I, perfect sense.
17:25Ah!
17:33The run-up to the wedding, I got swept up
17:35in the excitement of it all.
17:38James took me to meet Donna, the wedding planner.
17:42Had a big folder all about suggestions and ideas.
17:46And we discussed what I would like
17:48and how her and James would make this dream come true.
17:56One day, I found James sitting on our bed.
18:01He said he'd found a lump, and he was scared.
18:06We told him to make an appointment,
18:08go to get it checked out.
18:12Went along to the first appointment with him,
18:15and James said, OK, I'll go in on my own.
18:19He came out of that appointment, just
18:22said that the look on the doctor's face,
18:24that he thought it wasn't going to be good news,
18:26and he just had this feeling that it was going to be cancer.
18:32I felt so scared for him.
18:33I mean, he was such a good guy, and why
18:37did awful things keep happening?
18:41Getting married should be the happiest day of your life.
18:43And if you've got a potential cancer diagnosis,
18:45we decided to put the wedding on hold.
18:47They couldn't get married.
18:49How could they get married when this was hanging over their head?
18:51It made sense to me at the time that they
18:53did cancel that wedding.
19:01He had an appointment not long afterwards
19:05at the Woodlands Hospital, and he took Charlie's godmum, Yvonne,
19:10with him, just for my sake.
19:12Godmum Yvonne with him, just from all support.
19:16I was at work, so James said, there's
19:18no point you sitting in the waiting room here.
19:20And so Yvonne agreed and went setting off.
19:23The skies had gone a bit dark, and she thought,
19:25you know, it's going to pour down with rain.
19:27So she decided to head back to the car.
19:30And when she got back, James was sitting
19:31on the wall near the car.
19:33So she was quite surprised he was back so soon.
19:36And he was just sat scrolling on his phone.
19:38And Yvonne said, wow, you were quick.
19:41You know, has your appointment been canceled?
19:43And he went, oh, no, no.
19:44It doesn't take long when they give you good news.
19:49It had been a misdiagnosis that can look like a lump
19:52in the position it was at.
19:54So after that, because everything was good,
19:56James got straight back onto Donna, the wedding planner.
19:59It was all back on again.
20:05His mum, she was quite a successful sports agent.
20:09He lived in the south of France.
20:13She'd call James, and quite often,
20:15if it was, he would take it on his iPad.
20:18She'd be, hi, Colleen, are you all right?
20:20Not long after Charlie was born, his mum
20:22decided she would like to bequeath an early inheritance
20:25to all the children.
20:26James didn't say how much this was,
20:28but he did imply it was, you know, generous.
20:33I didn't realize James's mum was quite as wealthy as she is.
20:36And it was a surprise to me, because I didn't really
20:41know much about his mum.
20:45He was taking Colleen out for nice meals.
20:47He was taking her away for weekends.
20:49There was this bar at Ramside Hall.
20:52They certainly had a lovely lifestyle.
20:56As time went on and the stories of the money,
20:58you know, more money coming in from his mother,
21:01the days out would become more outlandish.
21:05So instead of going to watch a match in the stands,
21:07we went to the hospitality suites.
21:19James realized, obviously, I had these vital properties
21:23of my own, and his mum owns a lot of different properties
21:26herself.
21:27And Colleen, because she worked in property,
21:28could work from home.
21:30And that way, she wouldn't be missing Charlie,
21:32because Charlie would be around more with her.
21:34It just seemed really, really great.
21:38I was incredibly close to James.
21:40Would come around to see me, would have a coffee.
21:42And we'd just been chatting.
21:44He said, oh, my mum's got this idea.
21:46She wanted to look after her son, her grandson, and Colleen,
21:50and was interested in opening a bar or restaurant
21:53and giving it their family name, which was Scott.
21:56Karen had inherited some money when my dad had
21:59passed away some years earlier.
22:01Well, we both did.
22:02Karen still had hers.
22:04James never actually asked me to invest.
22:06He just talked about it a lot.
22:09And the fact of it being a family business,
22:11I'm in the family.
22:12I wouldn't mind being in this.
22:13This was an opportunity for Karen
22:15to take some of her inheritance and invest it
22:17in a good business where she could work for herself.
22:22So we went to the property.
22:23We viewed it.
22:23We walked around inside, had a look.
22:25All these brilliant ideas of what it would look like
22:28and how they'd run it.
22:29And it was just fantastic.
22:35So in total, I invested £55,000 in the businesses.
22:42There was £25,000 at Scott's, and then a further £5,000
22:46for contingency for things going wrong on top of that,
22:49and then £25,000 into Gemini.
22:51But that, well, didn't touch on how much I actually
22:56invested in the business.
22:58So it was a bit of a gamble, but it was worth it.
23:01It didn't touch on how much I actually invested in him.
23:06And because he was doing work on my properties
23:09and I was giving him money to carry out
23:11works on the properties, it was everything I had.
23:20When I first met James back in 2016,
23:22I knew fairly little about him other than that he
23:25had these ambitious plans and he really
23:28wanted to give opportunities to other small, local businesses.
23:32I was really excited with giving me and Mediasavvy
23:34the opportunity to be part of that journey with him.
23:37Doing some work on branding and marketing stuff
23:41for other companies related to James and also
23:44Colleen and Karen, including this Gemini properties
23:47website and branding.
23:48Just thinking, well, if this is just the start of it,
23:51where could it go?
23:53He was a nice guy down to earth, considering the millions
23:57he had bankrolled to do these projects.
23:59He'd approached me to do some videography work
24:02with this big, grand Newcastle Quayside project.
24:05From a couple of business meetings to all of a sudden
24:08being invited to VIP boxes for Premier League football
24:13matches and invited to his wedding.
24:16I'd only met him three or four times.
24:18It was a bit surreal in many ways.
24:21With that Scots, things were not happening as quickly
24:26as I would have liked.
24:30There always seemed to be some reason that there was...
24:34Problems were cropping up or things had to be cancelled.
24:38So I spoke to my sister and she was hurt.
24:42And James was just...
24:44He was absolutely horrified that I'd doubted him.
24:51I felt absolutely wretched.
24:55This is James, this is my sister's fiancé.
24:58He's part of our family, we love him.
25:00But it was all my money in the world and I'd a lot invested in that.
25:03If this didn't work out, then really, I was up shit creek
25:06without a paddle.
25:08I didn't even invoice James for any of the work we'd done
25:11until after significant amounts of bill had been sort of
25:15built up by that point.
25:16But it was always like, oh, the accountant's got it,
25:18but it was always believable because we were still involved
25:21with all the colleagues and at the point,
25:23we were still going to his wedding.
25:34A few days before the wedding day, James was travelling to Texas
25:38to bring his two girls, Maddy and Mackenzie, back.
25:41He was so excited, I was really excited.
25:43I was finally going to meet his girls.
25:46Then, when he got to the States, he went quiet.
25:52I tried phoning him, but his phone was always switched off.
25:55And then I thought, well, he's with his girls,
25:57he's going to be back in a couple of days.
25:59I was a bit unsettled, but not excessively worried.
26:05Then, I got a phone call from his mum,
26:07and I was like, I've got to go, I've got to go, I've got to go.
26:10I was like, I've got to go, I've got to go, I've got to go.
26:12I was like, I've got to go, I've got to go.
26:15Then, James sent her a message.
26:23I heard the door open, and in comes James.
26:26He said, we're not getting married.
26:29James said the wedding couldn't go ahead.
26:32I just broke down into tears.
26:34Just utter devastation.
26:36His ex-wife had just played her own tricks,
26:39just got him all the way to Texas
26:41and just refused to let the girls come back with him.
26:43So, I said, well, this is awful, James, but we're not getting married.
26:47I said, well, we're not getting married.
26:49I said, well, we're not getting married.
26:51I said, well, we're not getting married.
26:53I said, well, we're not getting married.
26:55I said, well, we're not getting married.
26:57I said, well, we're not getting married, James,
26:59but after the wedding, we'll do a big party.
27:03We'll get the girls over then and we can make it just a special.
27:06But he was having none of it.
27:08Did, at this point, try and say, no, come on, this is getting silly now.
27:13We've just cancelled a wedding a couple of months ago.
27:16We can't do that to everyone, but it was adamant.
27:19He couldn't get married without his daughters there.
27:22But he would get in touch with Donna, the wedding planner,
27:25and when he was sure that his girls could come,
27:27at that point, he just said, no.
27:29I'm not telling everyone that it's cancelled again.
27:39I'd been his champion to that point.
27:42I just checked out of it then.
27:44I didn't even want to talk to him, really.
27:48When I first heard the wedding was off,
27:50I remember thinking at the time, wow,
27:53that's quite a big thing to do, call off a wedding,
27:56what all this time and expense has gone into.
27:58James said that on the actual wedding day, we should have a day away.
28:07Make a nice memory and not just dwell on the fact
28:09that it should have been the day we were getting married.
28:12We decided to go for the day to Scarborough
28:14and just have a nice family day out.
28:17On the Saturday that they were due to get married,
28:20we had nothing to do, Ryan and I,
28:22because we'd planned to be having a wonderful day at Wynyard Hall
28:26and celebrating my sister's wedding.
28:30James had recently had a lot of boilers
28:33he'd stored in different rental properties I owned,
28:36and I needed to check up on some maintenance issues,
28:39and when we were there, I thought,
28:41oh, I'll see this brand-spanking-expensive new boiler
28:43that's been installed.
28:45We looked in the boiler cupboard...
28:49..and there was a boiler in there, but it looked a bit dusty.
28:54I also went around and looked at the rest of the property,
28:57and the amount that Karen had paid to James to get this work done
29:01was, you know, a bit excessive.
29:04Ryan phoned the boiler installation company
29:07and found out that that model had been stolen.
29:11And found out that that model hadn't been...
29:14..been in production for many years.
29:18So I then decided to phone another tenant
29:21who also had a new boiler installed,
29:24but she confirmed that no boiler had been put in that property either.
29:27None of the maintenance she'd asked for for months
29:30that James had been sorting out, none of it had been done.
29:33It had all been paid for by me, but none of it had been done.
29:37I phoned Colleen.
29:39James could hear a bit of the conversation.
29:42He kept saying, let me speak to her, let me speak to her.
29:45Oh, I can't believe it, I can't believe it.
29:47He'd been let down badly and heads were going to roll on the Monday morning.
29:51I didn't believe him, actually.
29:53I knew that there was something really badly wrong.
29:57I phoned Wynyard Hall, where the wedding was,
30:00and I spoke to the manager.
30:02I asked, is the Scott wedding going on today?
30:06The gentleman said, never heard that name.
30:12He says, no, we've actually got a wedding on today
30:14that's been booked for months.
30:22So this all started snowballing.
30:24It felt like everything was going in slow motion,
30:27because how could that be?
30:30Colleen had been dealing with the wedding planner.
30:32She'd had emails, and that was the moment that it all started to unravel.
30:42I phoned Colleen and told her to excuse herself and go to the ladies,
30:46because I'd got something to tell her,
30:48but to act normally in front of James and to not arouse her suspicions.
30:51I said to James, just nip into the toilet, went into the ladies,
30:55rang Karen back and she said, you need to sit down.
30:57She said, I'm so, so sorry, Coll, I don't know how to tell you this,
31:00but there was never any wedding.
31:03I could hear her teeth chattering in shock,
31:05and I was saying to her, you mustn't let him know.
31:08Get him back to Chester-le-Street.
31:10We need to talk to him, we need to find what the hell's going on
31:12and what's he done.
31:14So somehow I went out and just said,
31:16Karen and I have had a massive bust-up,
31:18I'm really worried for Karen, I want to go see my sister now.
31:21He knew how close we were, he couldn't argue with that.
31:24She deserved an Academy Award for playing that part.
31:29On the route, I'm standing out the window,
31:31reeling from what Karen's just told me,
31:33I actually said to James, you would never lie to me, would you?
31:37I actually had to hammer it home, so I said,
31:40so if you lie to me now, you're saying Charlie Wood dropped down dead.
31:44Now, if you told a lie, yep, I would never lie to you.
31:47And I just, at that point, thought, my God, who are you?
31:54What about my money now, and is it all OK, is my money safe?
31:58Ryan phoned this solicitor's firm
32:01and they confirmed that the name that we'd had,
32:04for who James had been dealing with, didn't exist,
32:06and not only did he exist, there was no branch in Newcastle anyway.
32:11I answered the phone and Karen was just hysterical.
32:14It's all lies, he's lied about everything, my money isn't safe,
32:18I was just blurted it out.
32:20She just said, we're coming up, we're coming up to confront him,
32:23and it'll keep him at the house.
32:25James obviously heard part of this turned on
32:27and I just said to him, what have you done?
32:30He just carried on driving, pulled onto the driveway,
32:33jumped out of the car, he passed Charlie to me
32:36and just said, I just need a minute.
32:40Jumped in the car and drove off.
32:47We missed him by about half a minute
32:49because just as we were driving into Colleen Street,
32:52he drove past us.
32:54And he had this cheeky little...
32:58..you know, like, I've got you, I've had you.
33:00Just looked like the cat that got the cream.
33:02And this little wave was the moment that I knew,
33:05beyond a shadow of a doubt, that my money had gone.
33:11But the hardest bit was telling Colleen.
33:13That was heartbreaking.
33:16She looked wrecked by it.
33:18She looked so upset and so hurt.
33:23Absolutely devastated.
33:27Whatever we found out from that point was going to be bad.
33:46We walked into the police station
33:49and I was just blurting it all out.
33:52Oh, my money's been stolen, he's stolen it all.
33:55He's a liar, he's a thief, he's a cheat.
33:57We had his registration of his car.
33:59Policeman went away and came back and said,
34:01well, this is registered to a Greg Wilson.
34:06Ryan and I looked at each other and said,
34:09and who is Greg Wilson?
34:11Because we'd never heard that name.
34:15And that was the tip of the iceberg.
34:32My name is Chris Bentham and I'm a detective with Durham Police.
34:36I've been a police officer for 27 years
34:39and a detective for 23 years.
34:42So I came in just on a normal routine day into the CID office
34:46and was allocated this case.
34:48I read through it and couldn't quite believe my eyes
34:51what I was reading.
34:55James hadn't come back at this point.
34:57He wasn't answering anybody's calls or texts.
34:59Then let's try and find out who this Greg Wilson is.
35:02Maybe he can tell us where James has gone.
35:04You go to social media first to find anybody these days, don't you?
35:07So we put in Greg Wilson.
35:09We got up a raft of different Greg Wilsons.
35:11None of them were right.
35:13My daughter, Laura, said,
35:16for the long shot, let's just check all the Wilsons in the Darlington area.
35:20Maybe we can find this Greg Wilson's family member or something
35:23and they can point us in the right direction.
35:27And then we found a Facebook profile.
35:35And there was a smiling photo.
35:38There was a smiling photo of this woman with James.
35:44I just turned in horror to my family and said,
35:47oh, my God, James isn't James.
35:50He's Greg Wilson.
35:54I just went into shock at that point.
35:56I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.
35:59I started to shake.
36:01Just felt sick.
36:09I decided I needed to get some more answers
36:12and find out what was going on.
36:17And the best person, I thought, who could do this was his mum.
36:21James had always said that his mum didn't do social media,
36:24she was too private a person.
36:26So I'd never, ever looked for her.
36:28But we'd found Facebook.
36:32I rang the number, she answered.
36:34I said, just before we go any further,
36:36can I ask you one question, please?
36:38Can I ask the name of your son?
36:40It's an odd thing to ask, but, of course, he's called Greg.
36:44And I said, well, that's not who I know him to be.
36:47I know him to be James Scott.
36:49And she just gasped.
36:55And I said, well, that's not who I know him to be.
36:58She just gasped.
37:05So, while talking to James' mum,
37:07obviously I asked all the questions,
37:09and was he going back to his wife?
37:11Was that where he was the whole time, living this double life?
37:15Were they still together?
37:17His mum told me that he was very much still in his wife's life.
37:23Obviously, his mum hasn't had a clue, either.
37:27She'd been told a pack of lies about me.
37:30She'd been told that I owned loads of property,
37:33that James was working for my business and property.
37:36The woman had been fed nearly as many lies as I had.
37:39She'd never owned her own property,
37:41she'd never been a sports agent,
37:43she'd never lived in the south of France.
37:46Lie after lie after lie.
37:49When he was working and he was doing shifts
37:53and he was away overnight,
37:55he was with his wife and his family.
38:00Ryan phoned Washington Fire Station and said,
38:03did they have a James Scott firefighter that worked there?
38:06And they said, no, no, no James Scott had ever worked there.
38:09Do you have a Greg Wilson as a firefighter working there?
38:12No, no, no.
38:14So we knew then that he wasn't a firefighter, either.
38:22But he had the outfit and all his shifts.
38:26Where was he going?
38:28Who were these girls that were his daughters
38:32that were sending me cards and buying me presents?
38:35They didn't exist.
38:37He'd obviously just been taking stock images off the wall.
38:40They weren't daughters, they were just, you know, whoever.
38:49If these people didn't exist, who was he talking to?
38:57Had he had a visit to me? Well, that's in the evidence.
39:04I don't know.
39:06Had he had a visit to me? Well, that's in the evidence.
39:13The fact that he made up a false name and he had a child together,
39:16there's no real crime in that.
39:21My job was to focus on the criminal side.
39:24He was taking money off Colleen's sister
39:26and using it for his own purposes.
39:30When I found out that the investments I'd invested hadn't...
39:34they didn't exist and all my money had gone,
39:39it was humiliating.
39:43I might have lost every penny I had,
39:46but I just felt absolutely awful for Colleen.
39:51To have found all this out, I felt heartbroken for her.
40:00It was devastating.
40:04If it wasn't for Charlie, I mean, he was my saving grace.
40:10I had to get out of bed, I had to go through the motions.
40:14This was the card he'd posted from a letterbox
40:18weeks after he'd run off.
40:20He was aware at this point that I knew he wasn't James Scott
40:23and he was Greg Wilson,
40:25so he doesn't even pretend to be James Scott in this card.
40:28And it just says,
40:30COLL, I'M SORRY, I DO LOVE YOU AND CHARLIE TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
40:34MISS YOU BOTH AND LOVE YOU BOTH.
40:36PLEASE TAKE CARE.
40:37SORRY, I KNOW MY LOVED PRINCESS.
40:39And then kisses again.
40:41And that was that.
40:42And this was the last correspondence that I had with James
40:48and he's never contacted me since.
40:54Once I'd had the conversation with Detective Bentham
40:56and it became clear that we weren't going to be paid for the work we'd done,
40:59I was, like, really pissed off.
41:01Actually, no, he had the wool over everybody's eyes
41:05and he's done it really well.
41:15He went on the run, but I traced him through an online bank account,
41:19so I literally sort of flew out the office, grabbed the car keys,
41:23drove as fast as I possibly could
41:25down to where Greg Wilson was living,
41:27knocked on the door and walked in.
41:29And there he was, sat there, really cool, really calm.
41:33When I told him why I was investigating,
41:35he said something on the lines of, yes, it was me.
41:40In all the time that he was spoken to,
41:42that's the only real admission that we got.
41:46OK, the date is the 18th of August.
41:49What is your full name, please?
41:51Greg James Wilson.
41:52Right, Greg, I arrested you on suspicion of theft and fraud by false representation.
41:58So the first question is really simple.
42:00Are you responsible for that? Hold on, comment.
42:02In relation to Karen Creagh,
42:05she tells me that she has paid you over the period of about eight months
42:12in relation to businesses which you have allegedly set up.
42:17She's paid you £57,656.90 to you.
42:22Do you agree with that?
42:24No comment.
42:25Do you dispute that?
42:26No comment.
42:27Did you tell them lies about all these companies
42:29and all these things that you were doing to con them out of money?
42:32No comment.
42:33Is there anything that you can give to me
42:35that would be an innocent explanation as to what you've done?
42:37No comment.
42:38You were living a lie?
42:40No comment.
42:41So when I arrested Greg Wilson, there was other people in the house
42:45and surprisingly I discovered that one of the people was his new fiancée.
42:50He had told her that he worked at Catrick in the army
42:54and quite often when military aircraft would fly over,
42:59he would suggest that he might get called in to work.
43:02Again, a complete lie.
43:03He wasn't working for the army.
43:05He wasn't even working.
43:06I think through the day he would go out as though he was working
43:10and do what he wanted to do and come back on a tea time
43:13and suggest that he'd been to work.
43:15He was well on his way to starting another fraud.
43:22Because I'd lost my job as well as having all the money stolen,
43:26I couldn't keep up with the properties I owned.
43:30I tried for as long as I could
43:32and it got to a point where I had to ultimately admit defeat
43:35and file for bankruptcy.
43:37One of the worst times of my life.
43:44Greg Wilson waited right until the last minute to plead guilty.
43:48It's no surprise to me to do that.
43:50I'm pretty sure that he was waiting to see if Colleen and Karen
43:54really wanted to go through with it to give evidence at court.
43:57We're nice people and I think he counted on us being nice and being soft
44:01and that's how we would behave,
44:03but actually we've got core of steel when it comes to it
44:06and he wasn't going to get away that easily.
44:14I really wanted some explanation and some answers.
44:17That's all I've ever wanted, but I didn't get them.
44:20He's just such a coward.
44:22We never quite got to the bottom of, was anybody else involved?
44:26Did Greg Wilson involve anybody else to help him commit this fraud?
44:30That bit is still quite open-ended.
44:35I think what he did was absolutely disgraceful,
44:38but it was...
44:40You've got to admire somebody that can keep so many balls juggling
44:43and keep track of all his lies
44:45and if he'd only chosen to use his power for good rather than for evil,
44:50he could have conquered the world.
44:55It did take me a while to even consider meeting somebody else
44:59or having a relationship,
45:01but I did in time go on to meet a really nice man.
45:04I mean, I was awful.
45:06I made him introduce me to all his family within the first few dates
45:10and I had to check his bank accounts
45:12and his birth certificate and his passport
45:14and meet all of his friends.
45:21Even despite everything I'd been through,
45:23I wasn't going to let James Scott define the rest of my life.
45:27I don't hate the man any more,
45:29because I don't think he's the man I want to be with.
45:32I don't hate the man any more,
45:34because I wouldn't give him that power and it's corrosive.
45:38It's a bit like a car.
45:39He used to sit up front and always be beside me.
45:41Now he's in the back seat and eventually he'll be in the boot.
45:45He's got no power any more.
46:02Well, for more scams dressed as sweetness,
46:18all episodes of Love Cheats are streaming now
46:22or watch here next Monday at 10.
46:26E4 tonight, the simmering tension between James and Miles
46:29feels like it's about to boil over
46:30to boil over with Maver and Jack caught right in the middle.
46:33Brand new made in Chelsea at 10.35pm.