Serial romance fraudster jailed after ‘web of lies’ saw women loses thousands of pounds
He's been jailed for almost three years.
A serial fraudster who stole thousands of pounds in romance scams has been jailed for almost three years.
Ben Millin, from Yeovil, fabricated stories of dying relatives, frozen bank accounts, job interviews and severe health conditions to scam women out of money.
Four women were defrauded out of an estimated £30,000-40,000, with a large amount of the money being used to fund his gambling habits.
The 32-year-old met Fiona in July 2021 and told her early on in their relationship several heartbreaking stories about his family. He also claimed he had money issues because of a dispute with an ex-partner regarding a house they were selling, who he claimed had become pregnant after being unfaithful.
He therefore asked for her to help him pay bills, travel expenses and more, promising each time to pay her back.
The lies came to a head in April 2022, when he promised Fiona to take her to Spain for a holiday. He changed the destination to London – falsely claiming a heart condition would prevent him from flying. He had her pack for this trip to London and wait at home, while he went to a job interview in Bristol early, before he would return and they set off for London. At that point she did not know she would never hear from him again.
That evening Fiona was worried when she could not get hold of Millin after the interview and called hospitals and the police to report him missing.
However, Millin’s appointment that day was not a job interview. It was in front of a court, as he was jailed for fraud by false representation against an ex-partner. It was only when Fiona saw the sentencing in the news that she realised she too was a victim, and the true extent of Ben’s lies and deceit completely shook her world.
Millin was released from prison in December 2022 and within six months began communicating with Charlotte via Instagram. Their relationship grew and he told Charlotte he was earning £40,000 a year as a self-employed sales consultant.
Over the next seven months he lied to Charlotte about financial issues and told her he had booked a holiday to Costa Rica for them both after winning £30,000 on a scratch card.
Whenever Charlotte sought some of the money back, Millin would make up stories of health issues for him and family members to win her sympathy.
In total he stole approximately £20,000 from Charlotte – money she had largely inherited from her father after he died a few years earlier.
The police investigation found that between June and October 2023 Millin had spent on average £5,500 a month on an online gambling site. He also had taken credit cards out in Charlotte’s name, and their landlady, Sophie, who lived with the couple for several months and thought she could trust Millin – until she realised what he had done days after she left to go travelling. Sophie said her home now is a ‘painful reminder’ of what Ben did and the stress he caused her and Charlotte.
Millin was first arrested in March 2024, but a fortnight earlier he met Chloe, from Bournemouth, through an online dating site. This time he falsely claimed to be a psychologist for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team, and that he was renovating a recently purchased farmhouse near Dorchester.
During their three-month relationship, he lied to Chloe by telling her he booked holidays to London, Ibiza and Lille.
DC Claire Morgan, officer in the case, said: “Ben Millin preyed on the goodwill of his victims by spinning a web of lies. He tricked them into being sympathetic towards him.
“All the time he was using the money to fund his gambling habits, with seemingly little guilt given how he repeated the fraud against multiple victims.”
Millin was charged with four counts of committing fraud by false representation in June 2025. Last month he pleaded guilty at Taunton Crown Court, sitting at North Somerset Courthouse, and was sentenced on Thursday 31 July.
Millin, of Roping Road, was jailed for 34 months and handed restraining orders preventing him contacting any of the four victims. He was also handed a five-year serious crime prevention order.