‘I don’t want to love again’: Woman, 70, ‘fleeced’ by conman who inspired ITV drama ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ says she can’t ‘trust anyone’ – as police hunt ‘charmer’ who swindled £400,000 from three grandmothers
- Hazel Wilkins met John Eric Wells online and their relationship blossomed
- In 2017 conman Wells fled with £63,000 of Hazel’s life savings and left her
- Hazel has now said she ‘feels really empty’ and ‘doesn’t want to love again’
A woman has said she ‘doesn’t want to love again’ after being fleeced out of thousands of pounds by the ‘Casanova conman’.
Hazel Wilkins from West Sussex first starting talking to John Eric Wells online in 2014 and a relationship blossomed from there.
Not long after their romance began, Wells starting asking Hazel for money and taking out loans in her name before fleeing, leaving her in a mountain of debt.
Now the 71-year-old has told how she ‘can’t trust anyone’ following the relationship, as South Yorkshire Police continue to hunt the 61-year-old who swindled £400,000 from three grandmothers.
Speaking on the This Morning sofa, Hazel broke down in tears after Holly asked how she felt about being left by a man she had made so many plans with.
‘It’s very hard to explain. It leaves me really empty. ‘I don’t want to love again’.
Hazel Wilkins appeared on This Morning today with daughter Lynsey Coleman to talk about her relationship with the ‘Casanova conman’
Her daughter Lynsey, who appeared alongside her mother on the show then tells how the situation has left her mother unable to do a lot of things.
‘It’s not nice, she has changed as a person and she has lost her confidence completely.’
Wells fled with £63,000 of Hazel’s savings in 2017 and she has now been left paying off the debt he left behind.
Wells had previously been jailed for three years after faking a lottery win in 1996, later claiming the scam was an attempt to save his marriage.
His lottery plot was turned into film Can’t Buy Me Love, which starred Martin Kemp and was penned by EastEnders’ writer Tony Jordan.
Now Hazel is adamant she ‘can’t’ love again and said: ‘I wont trust anybody. I’ve got to the point where I’m hiding my purse, I don’t trust anybody. I trust my daughters but no one else’.
Hazel said she felt her life had been ruined by Wells. She said that before she met Wells she had a good job.
‘I had money in the bank, not millions but enough, I had never been in debt had a nice life and beautiful home.’
When she first starting talking to Wells online in 2014 she said they would just chat about the everyday and he informed her he owned a business and had lots of different companies in other countries.
She said she hadn’t been impressed by that and she was more attracted to the ‘everyday person’.
Their relationship started to move on after they met in Crawley. When she first met him Hazel said they got on very well.
Kemp starred alongside ex-EastEnders actress Michelle Collins as Wells’ wife Kathy
‘We had loads of laughs.’ She added that she can no longer remember the attractive personality which drew her to Wells.
In December 2015 he proposed to her in front of her friends and family.
However, the couple then had four weddings dates that were cancelled, but Hazel said she heard the alarm bells.
‘You do heart the alarm bells but you don’t want to recognise them, you don’t want to believe it’s true because you love this person.’
His crime was later turned into an ITV movie called Can’t Buy Me Love in 2004 starring Martin Kemp as the painter/decorator
He cancelled the weddings due to business engagements and also blamed the deaths of people in his organisation.
Wells asked Hazel for £2,000 shortly into the relationship and claimed he needed it because he couldn’t get to a nearby bank.
He borrowed £15,000 from her sister and £5,000 from her daughter and also took loans out in Hazel’s name.
‘He left me with so much debt, i’m still paying debts from a loan of £10,000.’
But when Wells kept going away Hazel became suspicious.
‘There was always an excuse to go away. He told me to look for a £3million house and he came back to look at it.’
She finally decided enough was enough and ended it with Wells. A while after a woman called Lynne called him who informed her she had been living with Wells while the two had been dating.
Last week South Yorkshire Police launched a manhunt for Wells more than 20 years after women came forward accusing him of tricking them out of their savings.
Police said: ‘The 61-year-old, who is originally from South Yorkshire, is wanted in connection with three high value romance frauds, during which three victims lost money totalling more than £400,000.
‘The offences are reported to have taken place from September 2014 onwards. The victims lived in locations across the UK including Doncaster, Sussex and London.’
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