The true story of a conman who managed to live a double life for over two years is told in a new BBC England podcast.
Love-Bombed with Vicky Pattison investigates how ‘James Scott’ continued a relationship with Coleen Greenwood, who he met online, while secretly still living with his wife and three children. For a long time, both women didn’t know the others existed.
TV star, author and podcast host Vicky Pattison heads home to northeast England to meet Coleen and hears how she, and everyone around her, was deceived by the man they knew as James Scott.
Vicky also speaks to the man’s now ex-wife about how he managed to keep her in the dark when he was away with Coleen, sometimes for days at a time.
‘James’ also took tens of thousands of pounds from Coleen’s sister, supposedly as investments in his various property businesses, and defrauded multiple companies on Tyneside.
James’ principal victims say they were ‘love-bombed’ and the podcast explores what that really means.
Vicky Pattison is given exclusive access to police files and looks for answers by speaking to many characters at the heart of this true crime story.
Vicky says: “I’ve been engaged three times and had more than enough dating disasters, but this puts anything I’ve been through into perspective. I’ve never seen anything this outlandish on the telly – it’s that crazy, but it did happen and that’s why I’m so fascinated”.
The podcast’s producer Jon Douglas says: “This fraud went on for years and the main motivation does not seem to have been money. It’s only when you hear the lengths this man went to in order to create and maintain his illusion, that you can appreciate how so many perfectly intelligent people were taken in”.
Chris Burns, Controller Local Audio Commissioning, says: “This is an astonishing tale from across Tyneside and Teesside, and demonstrates just how well BBC England brings true crime stories to life”.
The full series of Love-Bombed with Vicky Pattison: How a serial cheater managed to hide his true identity will be on BBC Sounds from Tuesday 14 February. It will be serialised on BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Tees.
