Eyes peeled! Fraudster who conned leading estate agencies avoids jail

A conwoman who was jailed for defrauding two estate agencies has been convicted again of possessing forged documents relating to her relationship with a wealthy OAP.

Tanya Rowe netted more than £61,000 from her previous victims, posing as Ryley Cruz – either a wealthy heiress, successful barrister or a Wonderbra model.

She was jailed for five years in 2016 after admitting 14 charges of fraud that included duping Hamptons International and Savills, several private landlords and a waitress who lost her £5,000 savings.

When Cruz’s many victims started to chase her for money she would pretend she had suddenly been stricken by terminal cancer.

In her latest dodgy enterprise, Rowe, 42, posing as Mia Cavalli, accepted £70,000 in gifts and cash from an 83-year-old retired entrepreneur she called her ‘Sugar Daddy’.

She was cleared of defrauding the OAP at Chester Crown Court but admitted a separate charge of possessing faked Cartier payslips which enabled her to rent out a £265,000 apartment in the city.

Prosecutors claimed she told the old man, who believed she had breast cancer, that she had not been paid by Cartier and was facing eviction from her flat.

Affair denied

The businessman denied an affair, claiming that he had lent Rowe the money expecting to be paid back. However, she claimed the pensioner knew she was an escort and had offered her money to pay for a botched operation.

During her criminal career, Rowe, a convicted drug smuggler, also persuaded a woman’s magazine to run a feature describing her battle with cancer and the ‘sad toll’ on her relationship. A judge once branded her, “an exceptionally devious, practised and accomplished liar”.

Rowe was sentenced to 15 months jail suspended for 18 months and ordered to complete 20 days of rehabilitation activities after promising she would go straight.

Read more about frauds against agents.

Pic credit: Thames Police