The Danish sea captain whose photo was hijacked by romance fraud gang

Pictures of a real Danish sea captain were used by scammers to fleece a Scots pensioner into handing over more than £50,000.

Images of Thomas Lindegaard Madsen, 52, are believed to have been used to swindle hundreds of thousands of pounds from lonely women across the world, including Australia and the US.

The Danish sea captain has even been forced to make a YouTube video issuing a warning to women not to send any money to men they have met online.

It comes after Maureen Gunn, 66, stole close to £15,000 from her mother Jean Marr after being duped by a conman who promised her a new life after the pair had met on Facebook.

Gunn sold her jewellery, a car and took out loans to send more than £50,000 to the man claiming to be a 61-year-old UN Navy Captain called Joshua Jacob.

Gunn, from Tranent, East Lothian, even cashed in part of her work pension to give to her online suitor after he claimed his funds were ‘tied up’ in offshore accounts.

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Catfished pensioner embezzled £14,500 from her own mother after being targeted in romantic scam

The lovesick pensioner pleaded guilty this week to embezzling £14,521.60 while acting as primary carer of her mother between September 1, 2020, and July 31 last year when she appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

It prompted a message from the real man, whose picture was used to romance Gunn.

Captain Madsen, who is openly gay, said: ‘I’m just flabbergasted that this is the latest thing, but remember even though you fall in love with a photo or a picture of anyone don’t send any money to people you have never met in person.

‘A real captain would never ask money out of you, captains make a lot of money themselves - they don’t need to ask women for money.

‘And if a man truly loves you, any man captain or not, he will never ask you to send him money.

‘So please, please, please open your eyes and don’t believe everything you see on the internet.

‘At least don’t send any money to anyone you have not met in person.’

The fraudster sent various pictures claiming to be of him on board his ship, including one mocked up image he said was taken in his mansion showing a bedroom with large portraits of him and Gunn on the walls.

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Catfished pensioner convicted of stealing from elderly mother admits 'I've been very stupid'

After being hooked in by the romance scam, Gunn started pilfering cash from her own mother’s bank account after being granted power of attorney over her welfare.

She made numerous cash withdrawals from her 89-year-old mother’s account as well as making a bank transfer of £4,250 that was all handed over to the online scammer.

The court heard the pensioner ‘foolishly’ sold her belongings to raise cash to send to the conman and has since been ‘ostracised by her family’ after her crime was uncovered.

Gunn told the Mail this week that the con artisist had ‘taken everything from me’.

She said: ‘I was getting emails from about eight different people saying how ill he was and how he was going to die if I didn’t help him, and how it was my fault that he came over.

‘They said he was in some hospital down in London and, because he wasn’t a UK citizen, he had to privately pay.’

At this point, she said, he had conned her out of all her money and she started raiding her mother’s account.

She said: ‘He promised me he would pay it back, and he never. He was coming up here, we were going to spend the rest of our lives together.’

Gunn was confronted by angry family members outside the court building including brother David Marr who said the family has been ‘ripped apart’ by his sister’s devious act.

Mr Marr, 68, said: ‘She’s a silly old woman for believing this guy online. We all told her it was a scam but she continued to send him money.

‘She has really split the family up by what she has done.’

Gunn escaped a jail sentence and was instead placed on a three year supervision order and ordered to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work as an alternative to custody.

Sheriff John Cook said the offence was ‘an appalling breach of trust’ and also imposed a compensation requirement for the sum of £14,521.60 which will be paid a rate of £150 per month.