Car dealer who posed as high-flying professional to con women jailed for eight years for romance fraud (19 October 2015)

Worcester Crown Court has sentenced a man who conned women out of £185,000 in a string of romance frauds to eight years in prison.

Matthew Bart Samuels, aged 50, from Broadway Grove in Worcester was convicted on eight counts of fraud, but was found not guilty on a further two counts of fraud. On one other count of fraud, the jury was directed by the judge to find Samuels not guilty.

In December 2014, Samuels had pleaded guilty to impersonating a barrister, for which he received a three-month jail sentence to run concurrently.

The sentence follows a nationwide investigation, which was led by West Mercia Police, with support from other forces in areas where his victims lived.
Samuels met women over the Internet on dating websites.

The jury heard that Samuels would use different methods on his victims – including driving expensive cars, wining and dining the women and persuading them he was a millionaire. Once he had gained their trust, he would steal from them, the court was told.

On some occasions, the 50-year-old would persuade women to set up car companies as the legal head, while he ran them.

He would also use finance deals and steal from his victims, eventually leaving them when the debt ran too high.

In some instances, he would persuade women to invest money with him, or help him out of a fictional financial crisis – promising to pay them back, which he did not. Instead, he would spend their money on expensive cars for his own use.

Despite the lifestyle he portrayed, the reality was very different. Expensive cars were leased for the sole purpose of tricking women.

Samuels managed simultaneous relationships, sometimes seeing three women in one day – and used his job as a car dealer to cover his absences from home from his then partner, who often worked away herself and did not know about his fraudulent activities.

Samuels would sometimes use the names Matthew Copeland and David Copeland – and had also falsely stated at various times that he was a barrister, solicitor, financial advisor, a volunteer who assisted offenders and a medical surgeon specialising in knee surgery.

The judge put in place an indefinite restraining order, preventing Samuels from contacting any of his victims. A confiscation order is also being considered.
After sentencing, DS Tim Powell, of Hereford CID, said:

“This sentence is the culmination of a thorough and detailed investigation, led by West Mercia Police with the support of other forces from around the country.

“I would particularly like to pay tribute to the women who have been defrauded by Samuels – they have shown great courage in speaking out about their experiences in order to bring this man to justice.

“During his interviews, he tried to intimidate the officers – stating that he knew people ‘in high places’.

“In the end, Samuels has been shown to be nothing more than a thief who would employ any lie to live a lifestyle funded by other people's money.

“Once he had their money he was setting up his next target. Samuels saw these women as nothing more than a means to fund his lifestyle.”

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