Romance fraudster who stole girlfriend's 'irreplaceable' family heirlooms is jailed

A romance fraudster who conned two girlfriends into giving him thousands of pounds in cash and jewellery has been sent to jail.

John Robson, 65, from Gorleston in Norfolk, persuaded one woman to send him £7,000 in cash while another entrusted him with irreplaceable family heirlooms valued at £10,000 which she never got back.

Robson admitted two counts of theft and four counts of fraud at Norwich Crown Court and was jailed for four years and 10 months.

The court heard Robson was in a long-distance relationship with his first victim in 2021, and pretended to be planning to move to Bournemouth to be closer to her.

Between April and June, he convinced her to send him 16 money transfers, as well as cash, totalling more than £7,000.

He claimed it was to help with various fake moving costs, as well as travel following a family bereavement.

The victim became suspicious when he failed to return any money but when she went to the residential park he had claimed to have moved to, the site manager had never heard of him.

Robson met his second victim on an online dating site in 2023 and began a relationship.

After three months, he offered to take her gold jewellery to be cleaned but never returned it.

The jewellery, which was mainly family heirlooms, was estimated to be worth £10,000.

Police discovered Robson had sold most of the items to a pawnbroker for £1,900. Officers recovered some pieces, while others have never been found.

PC David Moran said: “Robson is a serial romance fraudster. He is remorseless when it comes to seeking out vulnerable women online with the sole intention of making material gain out of them by any means possible, usually fraud or theft.

“The victims have lost family heirlooms that are irreplaceable, and their savings have been wiped clean by Robson. I commend their bravery for coming forward and helping secure this sentence to ensure he cannot target anyone else.”

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