A STUDENT who was fleeced out of £20,000 in savings by an on-the-run conman today branded him “scum of the earth”.
Adam Lloyd-Harris not only stole Janine Munroe’s heart - he emptied her bank account and ruined her life.
The Walter Mitty-style conman charmed his way into the trainee nurse’s home, claiming he was a music industry executive and flashed the cash on expensive holidays and presents.
“He even paid for a hypnotist – with my money – to hypnotise me when I started asking questions about the relationship,” said Ms Munroe, who lives in Ryhope, Sunderland.
After admitting defrauding Ms Munroe out of her savings, Lloyd-Harris is on the run.
Ms Munroe, 35, said: “He’s good at what he does. He tells you what you want to hear. He’s charming, clever, but, underneath it all, he’s the scum of the earth.”
She says she first met Lloyd-Harris, 32, in February 2009 when they were introduced at a house-warming party.
She said: “He told me he was a music executive working for Sony.
“I would drive him to Durham Station every morning, where he would get on a train to Leeds or London.
“I thought he was going to all these high-powered music meetings, but later discovered he was just sitting all day in local libraries.”
Always appearing to have plenty of cash in his wallet, Lloyd-Harris led a “flash” lifestyle, always buying the best of everything.
Ms Munroe added: “He’d always arrive home with wine and flowers, and we had holidays in Portugal and Berlin.”
What she didn’t know was that she was paying for it.
She added: “He was using my credit cards and emptying my ISA account. He took all the savings I’d built up to see me through university.
“To cover his tracks, he’d come downstairs in the mornings and take all my post so I would never got any bank statements.”
Ms Munroe realised something was wrong when she found a letter from her bank while she was cleaning her car.
She searched further and discovered statements stuffed down the sides of seats. It was then she realised her boyfriend was a fraud and a thief.
She added: “I knew then I had to call in the police. He left my place with his laptop and the clothes on his back.”
Lloyd-Harris admitted theft and fraud at Newcastle Crown Court in December 2011 but then went on the run.
Police in Nottingham caught up with him twice, but he slipped through the net after telling officers he was undergoing emergency treatment for kidney failure.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he did that,” adds Ms Munroe. “He’ll be conning some other poor person as I speak.”
Twitter: @craigjourno.