The British girl on the centre of a Netflix documentary on how she allegedly duped her son and left him in debt to fund her champagne-sipping way of life has been charged with fraud in Singapore.
Alleged sufferers of Dionne Marie Hanna, 84, filed police reviews after gazing Con Mum, native media file.
They accuse the Singapore resident of taking their cash with the promise that they might be reimbursed via her inheritance from Brunei’s royal circle of relatives.
The ploy is very similar to the only she allegedly used towards London pastry chef Graham Hornigold, after she contacted him in 2020, claiming to be his long-lost mom.
A DNA take a look at later proved that Ms Hanna was once certainly Mr Hornigold’s mom.
Ms Hanna, who was once charged with 5 counts of fraud, seemed ahead of a district court docket on Saturday by means of video hyperlink. She was once observed mendacity on a medical institution mattress, accompanied by way of an investigating officer, Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia reported.
She is accused of deceiving 3 males in Singapore and France into moving cash to her accounts, claiming the finances had been wanted as felony charges and for the hole of latest financial institution accounts.
Ms Hanna sought their sympathy by way of announcing she was once terminally in poor health and vouched to reimburse them via inheritance, claiming that she is a part of the Brunei royal circle of relatives. Her son questions those claims within the documentary.
In change for his or her cash, she additionally made guarantees to donate tens of millions of bucks to a mosque and a Muslim non-profit organisation in Singapore, the court docket heard.
It’s unclear how much cash her alleged sufferers misplaced, however Singapore police stated initial investigations display she is serious about a minimum of 5 instances of dishonest with losses amounting to greater than S$200,000 ($149,000; £115,400).
If convicted, Ms Hanna faces as much as two decades in prison and a high-quality.
Con Mum, which was once launched on Netflix on 25 March, follows Mr Hornigold’s reunion with Ms Hanna in the United Kingdom all the way through the pandemic.
She introduced herself as a rich, illegitimate daughter of the sultan of Brunei, to begin with showering Mr Hornigold, his then-partner Heather Kaniuk and his pals with lavish items, from vehicles to houses.
Regardless that to begin with sceptical, Mr Hornigold, who has labored in Michelin-starred eating places and based Longboys Doughnuts, briefly advanced an in depth courting together with his mom.
Through the years alternatively, Ms Hanna started to depart Mr Hornigold and his pals to foot her escalating expenses – Mr Hornigold stated within the movie that he misplaced £300,000 – whilst she disappeared.
The movie means that Ms Hanna had up to now been convicted in the United Kingdom for shoplifting and fraud.
