Unmasked: £355,000 love rat who tricked Shrewsbury woman and left her needing food banks
This is the face of the love rat fraudster who conned a woman out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, leaving her "broken-hearted, penniless and homeless".
Durmus Akca, who made £355,000 out of a Shrewsbury woman, swindling her out of her home and inheritance from her father, has been ordered to pay back £1.
The con artist was jailed in March of this year for five years and eight months for fraud by false representation, and has this week been back at Shrewsbury Crown Court for a proceeds of crime hearing.
In March, the court was told how the victim’s romantic dreams turned into a nightmare, forcing her to declare herself homeless and use food banks to feed herself. It put her “on the brink of suicide”.
Akca, of Stapleton Road, Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, and the victim, who is 25 years his senior and used to work in a bookmaker’s with him, spotted him on the streets one day in 2017. She took pity on him and let him stay at her home. A relationship as friends began to blossom.
Akca, now 41, asked her for a loan of £40,000 to launch a cafe business, which flopped. The victim bore the cost of the failed business, but it gave Akca a sense he could tap her for cash again.
The victim’s dad became ill and, with added care responsibilities and the emotional stress, she leaned on Akca for support and described him as “her rock”.
