Widower sufferer of £85,000 romance rip-off

A 69-year-old widower thought he’d found love again after the death of his wife but was instead swindled out of £85,000 in a cruel romance scam.  

Former aid worker Rodrick Lodge lost his life savings and was left homeless after he fell in love with a Kenyan woman who went by the name ‘Anita’. 

He sent her large sums through money transfer service M-Pesa Kenya so they could build a house together and also to cover medical bills, tuition fees and other costs. 

Anita even sent Mr Lodge fake updates on the construction of their non-existent four-bedroom house with the 69-year-old only realising he had been conned when he landed in Nairobi to meet his would-be bride, but no one greeted him at the airport. 

The 69-year-old from Guildford, Surrey, says he no longer can access his pension and is temporarily staying in a Travelodge courtesy of the local council. 

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Former aid worker Rodrick Lodge lost his life savings and was left homeless after he fell in love with a Kenyan woman who went by the name ‘Anita’

Mr Lodge, a former aid worker, pictured with his late wife of 25 years Pauline 

Mr Lodge, who has worked as a humanitarian aid worker in Africa, was introduced to Anita through a woman named Mary that he met while working in Nairobi in 2020.  

He told told the Mirror: ‘I’ve known her [Mary] since 2020 and I thought she was a friend.

‘Last summer Mary told me she had a friend, Anita, who lived in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi. She put me in touch with her.

‘We started exchanging messages on Viber. She told me she was MD of a beauty company and had 30 employees.’ 

Mr Lodge said that Anita would send him pictures of the house she was having built in Voi, which is around 200 miles from Nairobi, and a number of intimate photos. 

The 69-year-old had lost his wife of 25 years, Pauline, one year before he started talking to Anita. 

He said that all his interactions with Anita had been over message and he never spoke to her directly. 

Mr Lodge then flew out to Nairobi to meet Anita in December but instead of meeting him at the airport, she claimed to be 300 miles away in Mombasa.

The widower said she continued asking for money and made persistent excuses as to why she could not meet up with him. 

Mr Lodge said he realises now that he has been a ‘fool’ and that Anita was ‘always putting things off’. 

The 69-year-old only realised he had been conned when he landed in Nairobi to meet his would-be bride, but no one greeted him at the airport (file photo)

He flew out to meet Anita in December but she said she was 300 miles away (file photo) 

He added that he doubts that Anita ‘even exists’ and has no idea who he has been talking to. 

Mr Lodge’s accounts have been frozen as he has gone overdrawn and now can’t access his pension. 

Friends have helped the 69-year-old recover £600 and he has enlisted the services of Richardson Hartley Law in an attempt to recover his funds. 

Martin Richardson, a partner at the firm, said that Mr Lodge’s bank had agreed to a voluntary code to protect vulnerable individuals from fraud. 

He said in a statement: ‘When these large sums of money were being transferred we would have expected, in accordance with that voluntary code, the bank to have made pretty stringent enquiries as to why the monies were suddenly being moved in such large sums. 

‘If those obligations had been followed we think this scam could have been either stopped completely or stopped a lot earlier.’