‘A hen sandwich revealed the reality about my buddy who scammed me out of hundreds’

EXCUSIVE: When Luana first met Eve at an audition, everything seemed great – until a twisted web of lies started to develop, casting a dark shadow over their friendship

Luana first met Eve in June 2017 when she came to audition at Luana’s acting academy. Eve, who had had a difficult past, struggled with auditions and Luana, who instantly felt sorry for her, wanted to help. “I hated the thought of her being passed over and not being given a chance. I wanted my space to be inclusive and I could see the potential in her. She was so happy to get the place and I was inspired by her and her incredible go-getting, positive attitude.” The pair became close with Eve traveling to Luana’s home country of Portugal where Luana was holding a retreat. While out there, Eve told Luana she was setting up a training business and that she was doing really well. Luana, a former actress and now founder of Dauntless PR, remembers: “In 2018 she told me she’d secured her first deal for her company with a UK retail giant worth more than £40k. I was thrilled. She told me she’d made further deals worth £150k. I had no reason to disbelieve her.”

But at the same time, Eve (not her real name) who was still undergoing acting training, found she was unable to pay her bills, blaming “bank issues.”

She asked Luana, 43, to come on board as her business partner in her nascent business, as she couldn’t handle all the work on her own. Luana initially turned her down, but the deals apparently kept coming in and with payments still months off, Eve said she desperately needed investment to deliver on the deals she had made. Luana, who now lives on Anglesey, Wales explains: “She said she was going to lose everything and that she didn’t trust anybody else. I agreed to come on board, provide the investment needed and to work on the business/delivery side while she carried on making deals.” A few months later, Eve sent Luana a screenshot showing that the first payment had been made into her personal account because the deal was made before we had set up any business accounts. She then claimed to have transferred it to the business account – but it never arrived.

By this point, Luana had recruited the help of another partner who would be paid with the money from Eve’s deals, and had paid for lawyers, videography, photography, freelancers, website, travel – at costs of around £40k.

“Eve said she was contacted by the bank to say that a woman had gone into a branch with an ID claiming to be her asking for the full amount to be transferred to a different bank. We called the police with her permission and decided to fly over to the UK to go to the bank and get to the bottom of all of this because she wasn’t being taken seriously,” Luana explains. Meanwhile, Eve was going through some significant personal issues, telling Luana that she’d had a one night stand with a stranger and that she had chlamydia and was due to be tested for HIV. Luana remembers: “She then showed me the most vile text message I had ever seen which was his reaction to her telling him about the STI. It was threatening, abusive and cruel. It also said that if she’s pregnant, she had “better get an abortion”.

“She later confided in me that she didn’t actually remember having sex with this guy, only arranging it and letting him in to her house. That she was having flashbacks and it was all fragmented but he had been violent and she had disassociated. She shared excruciating details with me that made me feel sick but I was the only person she was happy to talk to. I advised her to go to the police, which she said she did.” Eve claimed to be plagued by nightmares and flashbacks whenever she was at home, and said she feared for her safety, concerned about what he might do after she reported him. Then she sent Luana an image of four positive pregnancy tests, claiming they were hers. Worried about her friend, Luana invited her to stay with her in Portugal to get away from it all, during which time Eve announced that she was going to move over for good. During her stay she said she was bleeding and having stomach pains, that she needed to go to hospital, but that she didn’t want Luana to go with her. When she got back to Luana’s from the hospital, she told her she’d had a miscarriage and Eve travelled back to the UK.

“When she got back, she started saying she was terrified for her life. She said that her case against her attacker was going to court and she would have to testify, she claimed to have had severe PTSD symptoms and could no longer stay at her house due to the trauma. . “She told me she had nowhere to go and that her family were trying to make a claim on the money she was now making. On top of that, Eve claimed she was due to go to court to testify. I said I wanted to come and support her but she was then told she was no longer needed and went to court before the trial to give evidence by video instead. “She said the guy was charged with GBH, rape and intimidating the witness. Her solicitor told her he got 25 years in prison where he would serve a minimum of 18 years. She was also apparently told she would receive £3.8 million in compensation,” Luana says. But Eve’s apparent troubles were to continue – she told Luana she must have been carrying twins because despite the miscarriage, she was 18 weeks pregnant.

“Believing that the guy’s friends were after her to pay her back for getting their friend locked up, Eve said she was too afraid to go back home and flew out to Portugal as soon as she was able to. She lived in my apartment and said she would pay rent and bills as soon as she could. “When Eve was apparently 24 weeks pregnant, I received a text from her to say she was bleeding and in hospital. I couldn’t get hold of her on her mobile and I was incredibly concerned and called the hospital she said she was at. They said she wasn’t there.” Later that evening, Luana finally heard from Eve who said she was still in hospital and had given birth to a baby boy, who devastatingly didn’t make it. Luana, who was still in Portugal, arranged for a friend to pick her up and Eve was waiting outside for him when he arrived. “There were so many red flags, but I didn’t want to believe somebody could make all this up. Her stories were full of inconsistencies and exaggerations, but I put it down to her trauma,” Luana explains. Eve stayed in Luana’s flat for three months while Luana stayed elsewhere. The penny finally dropped two years after they met when Luana and Eve went to the bank to sort out the problem of the delayed payments. The manager told the pair that not only did Eve not have an account there, but nobody in the company of the name she gave as her account manager, the email address she had for him was not from the bank and they had no idea who she had been apparently talking to at the bank. Eve acted confused and claimed someone must be tricking her. It was then that Luana’s business partner turned detective and started calling the companies that apparently owed the money, who of course, knew nothing about the apparent deals. She then contacted the hospital where Eve claimed to have miscarried, who refuted Eve’s report of a stillbirth. And she went to the police, who said the allegations of sexual assault and resulting trial had all been fabricated. “I started asking her questions and digging into what she had told us and she said she was confused and that somebody must be tricking her. “I travelled back to Portugal with her because her dog was still there. There was a moment on the plane when I was pretending to be asleep because I needed to think – at this point I was highly suspicious but it still hadn’t sunk in that it had all been lies and I needed to process my thoughts without her trying to talk herself out of it. “When I opened my eyes, she was eating a chicken sandwich and I burst into uncontrollable laughter. For the three years I had known her, she had always said she was vegan. That was when I realised I had no idea at all who this woman was who had been living at my apartment,” she says. Luana dropped her at her apartment and never saw Eve again, messaging her to say: “None of this has been real and if you genuinely think it is, you need to go to hospital because you need help. I’ve been advised by the police to have no contact with you again so this is the last time you’ll hear from me.” Luana managed to recoup around £3,000 from Eve’s unpaid fees, but she remains confused because Eve didn’t benefit financially from the scam and she still doesn’t know what her motives were. “I couldn’t believe it had all been a lie. It hit me hard. At first, I struggled to believe that it had all been a fabrication. It didn’t make sense as the money hadn’t gone directly to her – it had gone to services used for the business. I blamed myself for allowing her to suck me in. I also strangely felt sorry for her.

“I don’t hold any anger or hate towards her, more pity than anything for feeling the need to create such an elaborate lie. It was a dark time for a while.

“I started working with Transformational Leadership Consultant Chris Richards at Atomic Growth which was a huge turning point in my life. I now believe people’s actions these days more than their words and seem to recognise red flags and attempts at manipulation and distance myself from them. Because of this, I’d actually say I’m more trusting than ever – but only of myself and those who deserve it.”

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