Childless couple conned out of £8k by fake surrogate find new mum to carry their child
Vile Samantha Brown made up her pregnancy but now Mark and Benita Cutter will have the child they have dreamed of
A COUPLE who were scammed out of £8,000 by a woman pretending to be a surrogate mother have finally had their prayers answered - they have found a new mother for their child.
Benita and Mark Cutter's lives were shattered when they fell victim to 25-year-old Samantha Brown, who was never pregnant.
They spent thousands on maternity clothes and other expenses, believing that Brown was carrying their baby.
The conwoman even sent them pictures of a supposedly stillborn baby in an attempt to convince them that she had lost their child.
But thankfully their nightmare is over, as they revealed they have found a real surrogate to help them have a child.
Care worker Becky Harris, 28, is 16 weeks pregnant with the couple’s child.
“After all of the tears and heartache we’ve gone through, finally we are going to have the child we’ve always dreamed of," she said.
New surrogate Becky has already had four babies for other couples, and the pair are thrilled to have found a mother they can trust.
Benita added: “We drove down to see her and her family and immediately we clicked.
“Now she’s having our baby and I have to keep pinching myself to believe it’s true."
The couple also told how they had been devastated by the news that their first baby, who they had named Tommie, was a lie.
Benita and Mark, from Hull, first came across Brown whilst on a magazine forum in 2013.
They said they felt powerless to stop the payments to her because they were so desperate for a baby.
At Brown's trial in Inverness, prosecutor Roderick Urquhart had said: “Everything else had been tried by the couple and surrogacy was their last option.
“It appears they were desperate for a child and perhaps consequently were a little gullible.“
Brown, from Tain in the Scottish highlands, told the couple she had inseminated herself with several sperm samples provided by 32-year-old Mark.
The swindler told them that she had conceived, and began sending them fake scans and accounts of her hospital check-ups and ante-natal classes.
Benita added: “From the moment Samantha was pregnant she pulled on our heartstrings, calling our baby CJ for Cutter Junior.
“It made us feel part of her pregnancy.
Brown continued to take money from the Cutters, even when Benita was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2013.
Benita, 49, and Mark paid a total of £8,307 into Brown's account for "expenses" including maternity clothes and travel.
They agreed to up the amount when Brown said she had lost her job owing to "complications" with the pregnancy.
Three days before the baby was due Brown texted the Cutters to say that she had been in a car accident and that the baby was stillborn.
But when she sent them a picture of what she claimed was the dead foetus, the couple grew suspicious.
Believing that she had faked the stillbirth to keep the baby, they called the police, and detectives soon found the ugly truth.
Brown was jailed for two years for the scam, and Mark and Benita said they have finally moved on.
Benita said: “We don’t let her shadow cast darkness over our lives any more but I felt utter contempt for her.
“I hope she rots in hell.”
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