Love-Bombed: The fake firefighter who conned his way into hearts
- Published
Coleen was in a relationship with "James Scott" for more than two years
Coleen Greenwood believed her partner of more than two years was a divorced firefighter called James. But after getting engaged and having a baby with him, she discovered that everything about him was an elaborate, carefully crafted sham. A new BBC podcast, Love-Bombed, tells the story.
Being a firefighter was a big part of James Scott's life.
It was prominent on his dating profile and he would speak about it constantly.
When he returned to Coleen's home in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, at the end of his shifts, his uniform would regularly reek of smoke.
While on duty he would send her text messages detailing his call-outs, he often included emojis - a fire engine if he was responding to a blaze, one of a car for road crashes.
He had work emails purporting to be from County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service and showed Coleen a thank you card he claimed he had been sent by a boy he rescued from a fire.
"I was so touched," Coleen recalls. "I used to have that card on my desk at work. I'd look at it and think 'Ahh, bless him. He did that, he saved that little boy'.
"Anybody that would listen would hear about his busy job and all the antics that went on.
"My family, my friends, my colleagues - everyone believed he was a fireman."
It was all lies.
Not only was James Scott not a firefighter, that wasn't even his real name.
Coleen Greenwood fell in love with the man calling himself James Scott after meeting him online
Coleen was 41 when she met him through a dating website in 2014 and he went out of his way to win her affections.
He bombarded her with flowers, sometimes more than one bouquet a day, and would turn up at her workplace to drop off her favourite almond croissants.
She fell in love with him because he came across as funny, kind and a good father to the two daughters he had with his ex-wife.
In reality though, the wife was not an "ex" and the imaginary daughters were actually three sons.
It was not until 2017 that Coleen discovered James Scott was the persona used by a jobless former soldier called Greg Wilson.
He lived with his family in Darlington, 28 miles from her home.
The firefighter ruse allowed Wilson to spend days and nights away from Coleen. His father had been a firefighter which meant he could draw on knowledge of the job to embellish his lies.
The longer Coleen was with him, the deeper his deceit grew.
'Miracle baby'
Durham Police believe Wilson faked a vasectomy, manipulating Coleen into unprotected sex.
She had seen him bandaged and apparently in some discomfort following the operation, and he showed her a doctor's report which said he had a zero sperm count.
"He'll have shown her a hundred fake documents and that will be one of them," says Det Con Chris Bentham who investigated the case.
"It's a disgraceful thing to do."
Coleen became pregnant and 15 months into the relationship had a baby boy.
Wilson called the birth a "miracle".
Coleen began receiving gifts for the new arrival.
Wilson fathered a baby boy with Coleen
All the while she was unaware that Wilson had dumped his wife and three sons in order to move in with her and the baby.
Wilson's (now divorced) wife, Rachel, told the BBC he left her penniless and while he did admit to having an affair, she had no idea he was using a fake identity.
The imposter allowed his false name and fake occupation to be entered on the child's birth certificate and for the boy to be given the fabricated surname of Scott.
'Rich mother' scam
He proposed to Coleen and she accepted, unaware that he was already married.
Wilson also began swindling money from her twin sister Karen, who considered him a "member of the family", to invest in an alleged business.
He knew the sisters had dreamed of opening a restaurant and, as time had gone on, he had convinced them his mother was a very wealthy retired professional living in France with an ambition to invest in a wine bar or restaurant.
"It sounded great," Coleen says.
James Scott was actually a married father-of-three called Greg Wilson
The invented deal was that the monied mother would give a share of the new business to him and Coleen, while Karen offered to invest money from an inheritance and rental incomes.
The couple toured sites in Newcastle looking for the right venue to redevelop before settling on an old nightclub.
Wilson faked documents and messages to dupe the sisters into believing the venture was legitimate.
He even set up meetings with genuine business people - a public relations specialist, a professional photographer and a videographer - which further solidified the con.
All were fed the same ruse that there was a wealthy mother in France bankrolling the development.
Wilson's actual mother is a retired nursery manager from Sunderland. She was oblivious to the lies being told in her name.
Wilson lied about opening a bar in Newcastle with Coleen and Karen
Wilson never did have the money to develop a restaurant or employ the people who had started working for him.
He gave the impression of wealth by embezzling Karen's money.
He took the sisters and his new business contacts to corporate hospitality events at Newcastle Falcons rugby club, where he dined in the platinum suite, which he did not have the money to pay for.
Newcastle Falcons - and other businesses who had accommodated him - would end up pursuing Wilson for debts, before lining up alongside Karen and Coleen to give evidence against him.
Wilson's lies did catch up with him eventually, after he twice cancelled the wedding.
Coleen's family had grown suspicious and discovered that the venue printed on the invitations had not even been booked.
Before they could confront him, Wilson handed over the baby he'd had with Coleen and drove off, never to return.
Coleen refuses to allow the experience to taint the rest of her life
In April 2020 Wilson was jailed for six years after pleading guilty to multiple counts of fraud.
Why he did it all remains a mystery. Durham Police do not believe it was for financial gain as any money he got largely went on funding the deception.
Wilson has been contacted by the BBC but is yet to respond.
For Coleen, the fallout was deeply damaging.
"I lost a stone in a couple of weeks. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep. My whole body used to shake all the time," she says.
"It was like a bereavement because we loved him. He was a fundamental part of our family, like a lynchpin, and then he was gone. And it was like, how do you cope?"
Vicky Pattison hosts the new BBC podcast Love-Bombed, which tells Coleen's story
Coleen, now 49, eventually met another man but, because of her experience with Wilson, she was extremely cautious.
She insisted on seeing his passport, meeting all his family and visiting his house before she felt she could trust him.
They are now happily married and her husband has adopted the child she had with Wilson.
"If I just crumpled and turned into a man-hater and didn't trust another person then he gets all the power, doesn't he?" she says.
"He was a bad person and I was just unfortunate but that doesn't mean that I'm going to tar everyone with the same brush.
"I wasn't going to let him win".
Love-Bombed with Vicky Pattison is available now on BBC Sounds
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- Published8 April 2020
