Sweet-talking Tinder fraudster left woman suicidal after stealing her identity to fleece her of thousands of pounds

A ‘SWEET-TALKING' fraudster left a woman he met on Tinder suicidal after fleecing her of thousands of pounds by stealing her identity.

Conman Jonathan Frame, 30, used the popular dating app to meet lonely women.

Once they had “fallen for his charm” and begun to trust him, he would use their bank details to take out payday loans, Manchester Crown Court heard.

He even used their own money to buy them expensive gifts.

During the scams, Frame stole his victims’ identities to get overdrafts and credit cards. He rifled through their mail and set up fake email addresses so he could take command of their accounts.

Ringing up a lender to get one of the cards activated, he claimed his unwitting girlfriend of the time was deaf and couldn’t speak on the phone.

He also frittered away thousands on designer clothes and meals in restaurants.

At his crown court sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Frame begged for a suspended jail term, claiming he had a manager’s job at a top high street store. But Judge Michael Leeming told him: “Fraud is what you do for a living” and said community punishment was “out of the question”.

Frame, who is from Manchester but had no fixed address at the time of his arrest, has now been jailed for 18 months. He admitted skipping bail last October and fraud offences totalling £6,990 against two young women he met on Tinder back in 2014.

One told court she had contemplated taking her own life, the other said she was frightened of future relationships.

The first victim was fleeced of £6,221 in just seven weeks. Even though she was unaware of what he would go on to do, she is liable for the debts because she had shared personal details with him.

Speaking of her ordeal, Judge Leeming told Frame: “At the time of the relationship she believed you genuinely loved her and trusted you, allowing you to have a free run of the family home and use of her car. Access to the house also enabled you to intercept her post.

“She says how you have ruined her life, that she had fallen for your charm and persuasive nature.

"She feels she’s been taken advantage of by a sweet-talking fraudster, in her words, and now feels completely betrayed.

"She initially contemplated suicide and expects to struggle in obtaining a mortgage, owing to the debts that have accumulated. She doesn’t expect to be debt-free until 2022, when she will be 31.

"She was 23 when she had the misfortune of meeting you.”

The second victim was targeted shortly afterwards using the same “well-practised modus operandi”, the court heard. She only learnt of what Frame had done after he walked out of her house one day and never came back.

A friend of his told her what he had been up to as lenders’ demands for payment piled up.

She was cheated of £569.01 within just 13 days, and says she lies awake at night for hours worrying about it.

Frame has convictions for 21 previous offences, mainly for theft, fraud and fare-dodging, dating back ten years.

Defending in the latest case, barrister Paul Hodgkinson said: “There’s little that can be said about the offending, it is unpleasant to say the least”.

“Whilst it gives the impression at first that this is a man who has gone out of his way to financially take advantage of these ladies, that isn’t the situation. He genuinely wanted relationships with them.

"The irony is, as is often the case in this type of offending, the defendant was keen to impress his partners and would buy them presents with their own money, such was his state of mind at the time.”

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