How could this highly intelligent doctor be left penniless and humiliated after being tricked out of £168,000 by conman lover she met on Plenty of Fish dating site?

Like many other young professionals, Liz Todd (right) turned to the internet for romance and joined dating website Plenty of Fish in 2013.


It was there she met Christopher Smith (pictured left with Liz). However It would take more than six months for Liz, now 31, to discover Smith was not what he seemed. In fact, he was a serial conman with a staggering 133 previous convictions for fraud, and a string of jail sentences to his name - which, in reality, is Christopher Heayns, although he has gone by 17 different aliases. By then it was too late. Liz bankrolled Heayns's indulgent lifestyle, including paying for him to rent a luxury flat in a manor house (inset). Heayns, 35, fleeced Liz of £168,000 - money he told her he was investing in their future but which he was actually spending on prostitutes and strippers. At his trial, he was convicted of four counts of fraud and several offences under the Insolvency Act. As he handed down the nine-and-a-half-year sentence, the judge said he was 'completely without morals' and 'the most dishonest person I have ever encountered' in 40 years practising law.