Single dad commits suicide after being tricked into sending £500 in an online romance scam. thesun.co.uk

Photo: The Sun, UK

A 43-year-old single dad, Christopher Leeds, took his own life after being tricked into sending money in an online romance scam, Inquest heard.

Leeds transferred £500 to a woman who seemed to want a relationship, and was later found dead at home, according to the report.

An inquest heard how Leeds who was a roofer started speaking to a woman, supposedly from Africa, who then started to demand cash.

Chris, from Dolgellau, Gwynedd in north west Wales, sent at least £500 for her flight to the UK, but she then started to ask for more.

Friend Gareth Evans said Chris soon realized he had been scammed but told him about another woman in Nigeria called ‘Paramount’.

He gave her money too, and she was supposed to land in Britain two days before Chris’ death.

Gareth said when he visited his friend he was already devastated, and when he returned later to check on his welfare he was dead.

Distraught family members attended the inquest into his death.

One woman told the coroner: “It was a scam. We have been through messages on his phone.”

Coroner Kate Sutherland recorded a conclusion of suicide and described the case as “truly, truly tragic”.

She said: “He may well have been scammed and had been suffering from embarrassment.

“He appears to have been scammed by a person or persons purporting to be a woman or women from Africa. He was hugely impacted.”

The coroner added: “He had years and years ahead of him. It presents a stark warning about the dangers out there.”

Gareth, who said he knew his friend since he was a child, recalled how on the day of the tragedy a tearful Chris had told him “lots of s*** had happened with Paramount”.

When Gareth returned to see if he was okay on December 5, 2020, he found Chris hanging and called for an ambulance and police.

“I said to the operator he had already gone,” Gareth said in a statement read at the inquest.

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