Gold-digger admits marrying man just to con him out of life savings | UK News

A self-styled ‘gold-digger’ who targeted a ‘lonely’ divorcee on a dating site and convinced him to marry her just so she could pocket his life savings has been jailed.

Lisa Elliot, 59, persuaded her vulnerable victim, who had MS and needed a walking frame to get around, to pack up his life in Brighton and move 350 miles to be with her in North Tyneside.

Within months of their wedding in February 2017, the ‘callous’ former university lecturer has rendered the man, then in his mid-60s, virtually penniless for the first time in his life.

The recovered alcoholic was also driven back to drink by Elliot’s controlling behaviour and only discovered how much she had taken from him after finding the strength to leave months later.

Tragically he died in 2021 without seeing Elliot brought to justice for the betrayal.

His daughter revealed in court how her once ‘vivacious, fascinating, generous and inspiring’ dad had grown increasingly vulnerable due to his medical conditions.

She described how Elliot used that to her advantage, eventually leaving him ‘dehumanised and humiliated, embarrassed and ashamed, adding: ‘He was robbed of everything he had at a time he needed it most.

‘He was left with almost nothing. He had nowhere to stay, zero options, zero finance, zero dignity and for the first time ever significant debt. He was a shell of his former self when he died.’

The court heard the victim’s family have been left with ‘ghosts that haunt us to this day’ and are traumatised by what happened.

Elliot, of Willington Quay, North Tyneside, admitted eight charges of fraud totalling £16,716 at Newcastle Crown Court.

Judge Robert Spragg jailed her for two years and three months.

He said: ‘You described yourself as an “Honest Gold Digger” but you stressed when you spoke to him the word “honest”. Of course, you were anything but honest.

‘This took place against a background, which is accepted by your pleas, of a relationship involving features of controlling and coercive behaviour including preventing him from leaving or moving freely around the house and restricting his access to food.

‘Money was just the tip of the iceberg of the damage you have done.

‘You should be able to trust your partner. This was a particularly vulnerable victim and it had a seriously detrimental affect not only on him but on his family.

‘The victim did not live to see you face justice.

‘You were his partner, he was extremely vulnerable. He should have been able to trust you but instead you callously defrauded him.

‘We have heard the kind of man he was and he deserved better.’

Prosecutor Jess Butterell told the court during the relationship the man’s family grew so concerned about his treatment that they contacted the police.

She said even though Elliot knew she was under suspicion, she enlisted the help of a male friend to activate two of the victim’s credit cards by posing as him over the phone.

By then, she had used her unsuspecting husband’s identity to purchase gold coins, used his credit and debit cards to buy treats for herself from Amazon and Marks and Spencer’s and transferred thousands of pounds of cash into her own bank account from his.

The court heard Elliot was formerly a civil servant before she became self-employed teaching university students then went on long term sick after the death of her husband.

She has no previous convictions. Sam Faulks, defending, said Ellot has mental health problems.

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