Ghanaian Maurice Asola Fadola charmed his victims – usually widowed pensioners – into sending him cash to fund his luxury gold-plated mansion.

A Ghanaian fraudster who posed as an American major general to swindle thousands of pounds from lonely British women he met through online dating sites has been jailed.

Maurice Asola Fadola charmed vulnerable lonely women during his ‘Rom Con’ scam, sending flowers on their birthdays and bombarding them with flattering messages and poetry.

But he would soon claim to be in some sort of financial difficulty and ask the often widowed pensioners to send cash his way – which he used to pay for a lavish gold-plated mansion in his home country.

The conman, believed to be in his 40s, has now been unmasked as one of the world’s most prolific online dating fraudsters as his callous crimes left some victims penniless and even HOMELESS.

At least 19 British victims were spun an elaborate web of lies as Fadola used pictures of US Army servicemen plundered from the web to claim he was serving in Iraq and needed cash for emergency medical treatment, customs charges or even to buy his way out of the army.

In all, he is believed to have conned 19 British victims out of around £800,000.