'Predator' lied about dying relatives to con women

Ben Millin stole an estimated £30,000 to £40,000 by garnering sympathy from the vulnerable women he targeted

A "predator" spun elaborate lies of dying relatives, severe health conditions and financial difficulties to trick women out of tens of thousands of pounds.

Ben Millin told one of his four victims, Fiona, he had a heart condition and needed to go to appointments for a non-existent pacemaker, while he was actually in court for offences against a previous partner.

Fiona did not find out the truth until the 32-year-old did not come home one evening as he had been jailed.

"Ben is a predator. He targets vulnerable women, exploiting their insecurities and empathy for his own benefit," she told Taunton Crown Court.

Millin, from Yeovil in Somerset, was jailed for two years and 10 months on 31 July after pleading guilty to four counts of fraud by false representation.

All of his victims said being pulled into his lies had left them with long-term mental health problems, in addition to financial difficulties.

The court heard he met Fiona, from Exeter, in July 2021 and fabricated a string of tragic stories about his family.

'A chess piece'

He invented a younger sister who had died of cancer, his father's depression, a brother's suicide attempt, and a critically ill mother who was placed in an induced coma.

After he was jailed for offences against a previous partner and released in December 2022, Millin begun a new relationship with a woman named Charlotte, from Crewkerne, within six months.

He stole about £20,000 from her - most of which she had inherited from her father - under the guise of personal and family health issues.

He also took credit cards out in her name, in addition to that of her landlady, whose home he was lodging in at the time.

A police investigation revealed Millin was spending an average of £5,500 a month on an online gambling site between June and October 2023.

Charlotte said Millin cast her in the role of a "chess piece in a game that I didn't know I was playing".

"I have lost trust in every person I know and could meet in the future and even worse than that is the trust I have lost in myself," she said.

"He has stolen not only my money but my ability to have the future that I so desperately wanted.

"What he's done to me physically, mentally and financially cannot be undone," she added.

Millin met his fourth victim in March 2024 through an online dating site, where he claimed to be a psychologist for Team GB.

Chloe, a widow from Bournemouth, told him of her late husband's cancer diagnosis and how she had cared for him before his death.

Millin appeared to empathise and recounted his own alleged personal tragedies.

'Sense of satisfaction'

But she eventually realised he was staging long emotional phone calls when there was no one on the other end of the line.

"These were not casual lies, they were deliberate fabrications centred around deeply sensitive and traumatic themes, seemingly intended to gain control and elicit sympathy," Chloe said.

"I believe he derived a sense of satisfaction from the confusion and distress he caused," she added.

Det Con Claire Morgan from Avon and Somerset Police described Millin as a "master of manipulation".

"Ben Millin preyed on the goodwill of his victims by spinning a web of lies. He tricked them into being sympathetic towards him.

"All the time he was using the money to fund his gambling habits, with seemingly little guilt.

"I've been investigating crimes for 18 years and Ben Millin is by far the most complex character I have met in regards to the deceit and lies he managed to maintain," she said.