A British widow died in a car crash in Ghana after she was conned by romance fraudsters out of her entire £1million life savings, an inquest has heard.
Janet Fordham suffered fatal injuries in the collision on February 14, 2023, having travelled to the African country the previous October.
At the time of travelling to Ghana, the 69-year-old was living in a caravan with her son Martin and daughter-in-law Melanie Fordham in Honiton, Devon, after using all of her savings and selling up her home and land.
Mrs Fordham’s life unravelled when she started using online dating websites in 2017 and fell in love with a romance fraudster who was claiming to be a British Army sergeant working in Syria.
Devon Coroner’s Court heard how Mrs Fordham was conned into sending him around £150,000, but her family are unclear how she transitioned from one fraud to the next.
The inquest heard Mrs Fordham had fallen victim to several online scams over a five-year period that saw her lose her home and life savings.
During this time, the widow sent £140,000 of her family’s money to scammers, withdrew the maximum £500 a day of cash and even had her car seized to stop her going to ATM machines.
Mrs Fordham’s family desperately tried everything to stop her, while detectives spoke to her about allegations of fraud in 2017, 2020 and 2022. But no matter what everyone tried, police could not investigate further as Mrs Fordham refused to engage.
The retired housekeeper then flew to Ghana in October 2022 to meet a man, named Kofi, who claimed he could help her get her money back.
They had become romantically involved and were on their way to get approval from a member of his family for marriage then the fatal crash happened on Valentine’s Day 2023.
Kofi was driving when the car left the road and crashed, with Mrs Fordham suffering fatal injuries. He later pleaded guilty to driving offences and received a suspended prison sentence and fine, the court heard.
Detective Sergeant Ben Smith, of Devon and Cornwall Police, confirmed there was no evidence of any third-party involvement in Mrs Fordham’s death.
The romance fraud began when Mrs Fordham started online dating in 2017 and met a man claiming to be a British Army sergeant major working in Syria who needed her help to get gold bars to the UK.
‘He was retiring soon to return to the UK. She said they were in love and they were going to buy a house together,’ Melanie said.
‘Janet mentioned nothing about any money at that point, but I remember candidly saying to her that it all seemed a little unbelievable, and the next thing he would be asking for money.
‘I told her categorically not to send him any. Janet had been sending money to him, but we didn’t find out about this until years later. I believe she gave him around £150,000.’
The widow later learned she had been further defrauded by a ‘diplomat’ after her UK bank accounts were frozen.
‘I think she realised that she had been scammed, but initially struggled to accept it,’ her daughter-in-law said.
‘We’re not clear how Janet transitioned from one fraud to the next.
‘We became aware that she transferred money by several means, including bank transfers, wire transfers at the post office, and potentially a travel agent.
‘The banks, post office etc stopped her from using their services, transferring money, because they recognised that it was fraud.’
The inquest heard that another man, Kofi, contacted Mrs Fordham saying he was a doctor in Ghana working part-time in a friend’s mobile phone repair shop.
‘He was working on a phone that saw messages to and from Janet on there. He believed Janet had been scammed,’ Mrs Fordham said.
‘He felt compelled to help her get her money back. So, he took her phone number and made contact.’
Police spoke to Mrs Fordham about Kofi, but officers could not further the investigation due to her lack of engagement.
The court heard Mrs Fordham contacted police again because her mother-in-law was continuing to transfer money abroad using bitcoin and ATMs.
‘Whether she was in so deep, she couldn’t accept it was all gone, she had to keep piling money in the hope of getting something back,’ she said.
‘Whether she genuinely believed what she was being told, we will never know.’
She also borrowed money from other family members, which totalled around £140,000, and was also in arrears on loans and credit cards.
‘Janet wouldn’t tell us much, so we started opening some of her mail and discovered that she had cashed in a chunk of her pension,’ Melanie said.
‘She was withdrawing the maximum £500 a day, we believe to stockpile, and then transferred cash as the banks had stopped her doing electronic transfers.
‘I was very aware that we don’t know everything and there is probably a whole lot more.’
In October 2022, Mrs Fordham flew to Ghana to meet Kofi who she was romantically linked to.
‘As a family, we tried everything to stop her, but she was adamant,’ her daughter-in-law said.
‘I spoke to her doctor, sought legal advice, but because she was of sound mind, albeit brainwashed, she was deemed to have capacity and there was nothing we could do.’
Detective Sergeant Smith said officers had contact with Mrs Fordham about allegations of fraud in 2017, 2020 and 2022.
‘It shows Janet Fordham as a sustained victim of fraud throughout that period,’ he said.
‘It’s believed that Janet has sent a considerable amount of money, estimated at between £800,000 and £1million over that period.
‘As a result, she had used all her savings, sold her home and land, and was living in a caravan with Martin and Melanie in their garden.
‘Police throughout these investigations have endeavoured to do everything they can to persuade Janet not to have any contact with the criminals and not to hand over money.
‘There was no issue with capacity and that she was making these decisions of her own free will.’
Mr Smith said on the day she died, Mrs Fordham and Kofi were driving from Accra to the Oti region ‘to get approval from a family member for marriage’.
Mrs Fordham suffered fatal injuries in the crash. Philip Spinney, senior coroner for Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, recorded a narrative conclusion.
‘The evidence shows that Janet Fordham lost a considerable amount of money between 2017 and 2022,’ he said.
‘The true figure is not known, but it’s believed to be between £800,000 and £1million.
‘Devon and Cornwall Police investigated these matters, although I should point out that Janet herself did not ever make a formal complaint to the police, nor did she co-operate fully with the police investigation.
‘In October 2022, she travelled to Ghana to meet a man named Kofi. He had agreed to help her try and recover some of the money.
‘The family believed that she also went for romantic reasons. Indeed, it’s believed that she planned to marry Kofi.’
He added: ‘I conclude that Janet Fordham died as a consequence of a head injury that was probably sustained in a road traffic collision.’
Her son Mel said on a Gofundme page set up to fly her body home: ‘Janet lost absolutely everything. The Ghanaian scammers were able to manipulate her and by coercive control, managed to destroy her life.
‘She was no longer the mum and grandmother that her family knew and loved. Before her death, all that she had was taken from her.
‘We tried everything in our power to stop this from happening. We spoke to the bank, her doctor, a solicitor and on multiple occasions the police.
‘But the system very much let us down. Everywhere we turned we were told there was no help.
‘Because she was of sound mind, we couldn’t take control of her finances. All we ever wanted to do was to protect Janet.
‘But because she was of sound mind, although everyone could see she was being controlled, we were absolutely powerless to step in and help.’
Source: www.kumasimail.com
