Romance conman posed as MI6 worker to scam women out of £50k

A serial romance scammer, who told victims he worked for the BBC and MI6, has been jailed for more than five years.

Kitchen porter Rodney Ade Roberts, 40, from Cardiff, also known as Paul Smith, conned three women out of nearly £50,000.

Rachel Serjeant, 30, from Bristol, met Roberts in October 2022 on a dating app and scammed her out of £980.

She said: "The betrayal of trust is far deeper than the loss of the money. Everything I believed to be real was not. He didn't even tell me his real name."

Roberts, from Trowbridge in Cardiff, used the money from his victims to fund a lavish lifestyle of designer clothes and drugs, threatening one of the women if she went to the police.

He has a long history of fraud going back to 2015, with six convictions for seven offences including romance fraud.

Sentencing him, Judge Celia Hughes said he was guilty of a massive abuse of trust, describing him as "selfish and narcissistic" with no thought for the feelings of the three women involved.

She commended their bravery, telling them they were not to blame themselves for his actions.

Roberts told one of his victims he was employed by the American ABC News network and was on a two-year secondment to BBC Cymru Wales in Cardiff.

He showed her a fake BBC lanyard and identification card and on one occasion the woman walked with him to BBC Cymru Wales' headquarters in Central Square where he claimed to work in TV production.

The woman, a freelance artist, met Roberts in March 2024 on a dating app, before he defrauded her of £8,660 during their five-month relationship.

Roberts told her he was having problems with his American bank account and asked her to loan him £4,000 for a deposit on a flat, which she agreed to do.

There were further requests for money, together with promises that it would be returned to her account.

Three months into their relationship, he told her his father had died, which was untrue. He later asked for £250 to buy a painting to remember him.

The woman then became increasingly suspicious of Roberts after he asked her for more money and promised to find work for her as an artist in Jamaica and the US.

Eventually she discovered he had previous convictions for romance fraud after finding a news story about a previous court case and reported him.

Addressing Newport Crown Court, she said: "He violated my finances, my body and my sense of self."

She said her trust, particularly in men, had been deeply damaged and she felt embarrassment and shame.

In tears, she told the judge: "I am quite determined to heal. I want to be able to speak openly for my own recovery and to support other women harmed by him, or men like him."

'Everything I believed to be real was not'

Rachel Serjeant, 30, from Bristol, also met Roberts in October 2022 on a dating app. He introduced himself as Paul Smith from California and claimed to work in the media as an attorney.

On Christmas Eve 2022, her asked for £150 for a car tyre, telling her if she did not help him he wouldn't visit her on Boxing Day.

By January 2023 he had taken £980 and failed to pay any of the money back as promised.

When Rachel told him she wanted to take a break from the relationship she said he became angry. He later told her he had to go back to the United States because his father had died. She also discovered his past convictions for romance scams online.

In her victim personal statement, Rachel said: "The betrayal of trust is far deeper than the loss of the money. Everything I believed to be real was not. He didn't even tell me his real name."

The court was told how another woman who lost more than £40,000 to his scams also thought he was an American attorney and financial expert working on stadium construction in the UK. He later told her that identity was a cover story and in fact he was working for the intelligence services.

At the time of their relationship the woman was selling her home. Roberts persuaded her to send large sums from the sale into what he said was an investment opportunity.

After two years together she ended the relationship on 4 July 2023 and asked for her money back. He told her it would be returned a few days later but it was not.

Days before the start of his trial, Roberts admitted three counts of fraud by false representation.

He was given a slightly reduced sentence for the guilty pleas and was jailed for a total of 61 months.

He is not allowed to contact the three women and will be subject to a serious crime prevention order when he is released.

Roberts has also been ordered to repay his victims within two years.

Det Con Amanda Davies, of the Tarian regional organised crime unit, welcomed the sentence and praised the courage of the women involved pursuing the case.

"Fraudsters, and romance fraudsters in particular, excel at spinning a narrative that can sound plausible to victims," she said.

"If you feel that something could be too good to be true, I encourage you to trust your instincts. Reach out to friends or family. If you believe you may have been a victim of romance fraud, report it to Report Fraud."