(Picture: SWNS)
A ‘prolific and systematic’ fraudster who pretended to be in relationships with women to scam them out of money has been dubbed ‘the man with the golden tongue’.
David Checkley told Angie Montana he urgently needed £3,200 to pay for window installations in a ‘mansion’ he was building – but in fact he’d scammed her and nine other women out of around £100,000.
Angie, 63, was in remission from stage two cancer in 2020 when she decided to try dating again and created a profile on dating site Plenty of Fish.
She and Checkley struck up a conversation and went on to have two dates in restaurants and visit each other regularly over the next month.
‘He started talking to me about how much he fancied me,’ she said. ‘He’d text things like, “I can feel love in the air”. I thought, what absolute rubbish.’
But despite her misgivings, while driving to work one morning Angie received a call from Checkley, asking for the £3,200 for window installations. He said he couldn’t borrow the cash from his son as he was in Frankfurt at the time.
Angie was one of 10 women who fell for Checkley’s scams (Picture: SWNS)
Her gut told her something was wrong, but Checkley promised to return the money 48 hours later – so Angie sent it over.
She said: ‘The bank details he sent me were under the name of “Brown” – I queried this, but he told me it was going directly to the window supplier.
‘I took him at face value and I believed him. He’d been forthcoming, sending me his email address so I could get hold of him while he was out of the country.
‘My bank asked me all sorts of security questions – after a good grilling from them, I sent it, thinking I’d get it back the next day.’
The next day, Checkley FaceTimed Angie and told her he’d send the money back to her within a few hours.
But when Angie sent him a text reminder that evening he dropped out of contact.
‘I was texting and texting,’ she said. ‘The only time he replied to me was the next morning, when he told me to “stop sending these ridiculous texts”.
‘From that point, I made him stay in touch, because I wanted my money back.’
She sent numerous frantic texts over the following weeks, but Angie never got her money back.
It was then that she told her daughter about Checkley – who told her to report it to Action Fraud.
Angie said: ‘My daughter told me to go back over my emails, and we’d try to figure out whose email address he was using.
‘I immediately rang Action Fraud, and reported the scam to my bank, who were able to pay £1,600 back.
‘In the time between ringing Action Fraud and Checkley being arrested, I was designated a female police officer, who supported me.
‘It was a long time before I heard anything back – to be honest, I started to lose my confidence in the police.
‘But the investigation leader called me one afternoon – after a long spell of not hearing anything. He told me Checkley had got off a plane and they’d arrested him straight away.
Checkley was nicknamed ‘the man with the golden tongue’ (Picture: SWNS/Metropolitan Police)
‘It helped with the stress – but I was in a real state, mentally, at the time, with a multitude of things going through my head.’
Checkley, 65, was sentenced to 11 years in prison at the Old Bailey on November 29 after being found guilty of 19 counts of fraud and one count of theft.
But, even though he’s behind bars, Angie feels traumatised by how she was treated – and struggled to trust men she’s dating.
She said: ‘I wanted to withdraw from the case so many times, but it’s about protecting women.
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‘I’ve had therapy, I’m in counselling and I listen to all those self-help podcasts. But he still impacts everything.
‘I feel like I’m double-grieving – the relationship was totally fake, and the sheer embarrassment of handing my money over.
‘One minute he was really charming – well dressed, polite – but when it came to me asking for my money back, he was like a different person.
‘We laughed a lot – he told me he was an architect with grandkids. He just came across as a very charismatic family man.’
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‘I feel like I’m double-grieving – the relationship was totally fake, and the sheer embarrassment of handing my money over.’