by Akan Ido
A British woman posing as a Lifestyle Coach has escaped jail after swindling Nigerian Super Eagle striker, others of over £80,000.
Scheming Claire Duke admitted to defrauding the complainants by pocketing monies meant for her clients’ luxury holidays.
Other victim’s of Duke’s scam were Liverpool’s Andre Wisdom and former West Bromwich Albion and Celtic manager Tony Mowbray.
Duke, from St Albans, Hertfordshire, swindled the money by setting up a business called Solutions Lifestyle where she advertised flights and hotels at discount prices for her wealthy clients.
Read the Daily Mail report below:
The lifestyle consultant would take money for holidays and flights from her customers – but would pocket the cash for herself.
She wept in the dock at Stafford Crown Court, Staffordshire, today as she confessed to seven counts of fraud.
In total she made £82,561.79 fraudulently from six of her clients between April 1, 2012 and July 10 last year.
The court heard Mowbray – who was managing Middlesborough at the time – paid Duke over £30,000 for a hotel in Dubai.
But when he arrived with his family, he found not only had a different hotel been booked but it had not even been paid for.
She also stole £15,437.67 from Nigerian striker Odemwingie, 32, after obtaining his bank details from his debit card.
She also pocketed £6,000 from defender Wisdom, 21, currently on loan to Derby County, after he paid for a trip to Jamaica.
Hugh O’Brien-Quinn, prosecuting said: ‘She was a lifestyle coach and one of her clients was Peter Odemwingie, then a footballer at West Bromwich Albion.
‘He had paid the defendant £7,000 so she could book him flights to Miami. He paid with his debit card.
‘He married his fiancée in May 2012 and his future parents in law paid £7,560 to book a honeymoon.
‘The defendant pocketed that money but needed to cover her tracks and book a honeymoon.
‘She received £1,000 commission and even handed over the tickets at the wedding reception.
‘She then used Mr Odemwingie’s card again for return flights from Eindhoven to London for a football agent priced at £325.33.’
The court also heard how Duke stole £6,600 from Liverpool player Andre Wisdom who gave her the money to book him a flight to Jamaica.
However, she took the money for herself and then tried to cover her tracks by using Mr Odemwingie’s account to pay £15,160.44 for flights and hotels for Mr Wisdom’s holiday to Jamaica.
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