Moment one in every of UK’s most prolific romance fraudsters is confronted after making an attempt to satisfy up with subsequent sufferer – days after being launched from SEVENTH jail time period
One of the UK’s most prolific romance fraudsters was confronted after trying to meet up with his next victim just days after being released from his seventh jail term.
Raymond McDonald has racked up 58 convictions – mostly for fraud and theft – stealing thousands of pounds from women for fake weddings and holidays.
After being released on license in November he quickly signed up to dating apps in an attempt to find his next victim.
By December 3, his profile was found on an online dating site called Badoo by a reporter from the BBC.
Posing as a mother of two named Kaye who had never used dating apps before, the reporter matched with McDonald.
She claimed her daughter Lauren was going through a break up and he offered to go halves on a handbag for her.
He even offered the use of his van to help her move and said she could stay in his lodge.
On top of that he suggested a possible ‘wedding in Vegas’ and encouraged her to buy items from his friend.
After being released on license in November he quickly signed up to dating apps in an attempt to find his next victim
Posing as Kaye, reporter Philippa Goymer arranged to meet him for a ‘date’.
‘It’s Rob, isn’t it?’ she said, as she approached him at the agreed meeting place.
‘Yeh,’ he said, a moment before spotting her microphone and the camera crew.
‘It’s not Rob though, is it,’ Goymer said. ‘It’s Ray, or are you Mark today?’
He claimed he was using the dating apps to find friendship.
Five days after the encounter, on December 15, he was arrested.
A spokesperson for HM Prison & Probation Service said he was returned to prison for breaking the rules of his licence conditions.
McDonald from Country Durham was discharged from the army in August 2000 briefly worked in a supermarket and at a factory packing chickens.
He is considered one of the Britain’s most prolific romance fraudsters having stolen thousands of pounds through false promises of love
He received his first prison term in 2003, followed by a suspended sentence four years later, on top of four more jail stints.
Released during the term he was given in 2019, he immediately began scamming another woman and was recalled to prison.
He is considered one of the Britain’s most prolific romance fraudsters having stolen thousands of pounds through false promises of love.
Several women described to the BBC the high levels of trauma he inflicted on them.
One of the victims who spoke to the broadcaster said they first met McDonald through a dating site.
He told her he was working over Christmas in a secretive military role, training foreign soldiers, but wanted to stay in touch with her during the festive season.
The woman recounted: ‘(He) just made you feel, I don’t know, wanted. Special. I hadn’t been in a relationship for such a long time. I suppose in hindsight, it was what I wanted to hear.’
However it later turned out that McDonald wasn’t just talking to Paula, he formed relationships with several women, arranging to meet and telling them he was newly divorced and starting a new job.
He received his first prison term in 2003, followed by a suspended sentence four years later, on top of four more jail stints
One claimed McDonald had told her he needed to be on shift at the probation service in the evenings – when actually he was reporting himself to probation.
All the women who came forward described him as warm, genuine and even vulnerable at first.
However, in the midst of all this, he was taking money from them to pay for things that would never materialise.
A Badoo spokesperson said: ‘We work closely with law enforcement and maintain dedicated channels for them to share information about individuals who are banned from using dating apps due to court orders or parole restrictions.
‘Anyone found to be attempting to defraud or manipulate members will be restricted or banned from the app.’
