A fraudster faces jail for conning a millionairess he met on dating app Tinder into handing him £141,000.
Richard Dexter tricked Amrita Sebastian out of the huge sum by posing as a successful businessman and telling her he was on the verge of a 'big windfall' after acquiring the patents to valuable biopharmaceutical technology, a court heard.
The 38-year-old told his victim that major multi-national corporations were interested in signing a major deal with him.
Prosecutors say that Miss Sebastian, an executive based in the Middle East, then handed over a series of payments totalling £141,000, believing that they were investments.
Dexter then pocketed the cash for himself, and offered a series of increasingly bizarre excuses for why he couldn't pay her back.
Richard Dexter faces jail for conning a millionairess he met on dating app Tinder into handing him £141,000
He tricked Amrita Sebastian out of the huge sum by posing as a successful businessman and telling her he was on the verge of a 'big windfall' after acquiring the patents to valuable biopharmaceutical technology, a court heard
At this point, Miss Sebastian called the police, a jury at Portsmouth Crown Court heard.
When officers raided Dexter's Hampshire home, they found a document which claimed he had more than £4million invested with financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown. But the court was told this was a 'total fabrication' and the account actually belonged to a friend of his whose final balance was just 37p.
Dexter previously pleaded guilty to seven charges of fraud but had denied forging patent documents and perverting the course of justice in a bid to 'wheedle out' of his alleged fraud.
He claimed he had simply 'redacted' not 'forged' the document and claimed he no intention of using a fraudulent document in his possession to defraud anyone.
But jurors at Portsmouth Crown Court have now found Dexter guilty of both counts after deliberating for three hours.
The father of two, dressed in a grey suit with a gold tie, looked down and stared blankly as the verdict was given.
Addressing Dexter, Judge Timothy Mousley QC said that jail was 'inevitable'.
'The offences to which you have pleaded guilty are sufficient to justify an immediate custodial sentence of some length and those that the jury have found you guilty of will add to the sentence,' he told the defendant.
Judge Mousley
