A Kenyan man has hit local and international headlines over his seemingly 'successful' dating scam that has seen him rake in Millions from his victims.
Operating on dating sites, the ‘serial’ dater had reportedly managed to net 47 rich women spread across various countries across the world.
The hallmark of his alleged trade, was his relationship with a 67-year-old British teacher, Judith Stiwell, whom they met online and even got married.
Mr Ovi Elias, as he identified himself to Ms Stiwell, met the British woman in 2009 on a UK dating site, where they sparked a flame which led to marriage three years later.
When the two met online, Mr Elias claimed he lived in the UK since he was a 20 year-old student, and owned a flat in London. He also told his new found 'love' that he was a retired accountant and was in the process of buying a property in Dubai.
Mr Elias even moved in with Ms Stillwell at her home in Ashington, West Sussex where they lived as a couple and even decided to visit Elias’ maternal home in Kenya to receive blessings.
‘After our wedding I paid for us to visit his relatives in Kenya for a blessing, staying in one cramped room with other relatives. I was so moved by the dilapidated state of the house his father lived in, I paid out thousands to have water and electric showers connected plus other essential repairs,’ said Ms Stiwell.
Before the truth unfolded, Ms Stiwell took from her savings about Sh4 Million and gave her husband the money to fund and establish his alleged businesses in Dubai.
After returning to the UK, Mr Elias embarked on a trip that would unravel the truth. He claimed to have gone to Dubai on a trip to assess his investments, only for information to later emerge that he had gone to Australia to meet another of his many women.
While in Australia, he used his Australian lover's computer to access his emails but forgot to log out after he had left.
The woman was shocked to find out that there was a list of 47 women who had fallen into Elias' trap. It is then that she obtained Ms Stiwell's number in the chat list and went ahead to inform her of the whole scandal.
According to the retired British teacher, the Australian woman told her that:
‘Steve had used her laptop but not closed his emails down properly. And she’d found a list of 47 women, including us, dotted around the world. She’d even contacted some of them – a woman in the States, a “Roz” in Tasmania, another woman in the Philippines and so on. Apparently he met them all on dating websites and using the story about a property in Dubai, got them to pay his air fares all around the world. Then he stayed for weeks at a time living with each woman, spinning her the same line.’ In April, Mr Elias returned briefly to West Sussex,”
