Woman's best friend posed as fake boyfriend to con her of £117,000 life savings

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A woman has been left devastated after her best friend of 25 years posed as a lover to con her of £117,000.Susan Hughes was even sent birthday cards and gifts from who she believed to be her boyfriend named Ste - a former club bouncer who she met several years ago.The pair had planned a life together and penned emotional notes to one another, even though it had been years since they had seen each other in the flesh.But, the person sending the romantic gestures wasn't Ste at all - it was Susan's best friend of more than two decades, Anna Bonner.

The "romance was all part of a long plan to con Susan of tens of thousands of pounds, The Mirror reports. Anna left Susan convinced that Ste wanted to get married – but first needed help paying for cancer treatment in the US.It was all an elaborate lie.

And mum-of-three Bonner, 40, was this month jailed after admitting fraud. Today, Susan tells how she lost her life savings – and the ability to trust anyone – after a scam that began in 2011 and ran her ragged for nine years.

The seeds for deception go back even further – to the 1990s, when Susan DID meet a man named Ste. Susan, a psychiatric nurse, says: “I have a soft heart, I like looking after people, and Anna took advantage of that.