US man gets seven years in prison for swindling women on Match.com, Craigslist
He told women he was a millionaire when he had less than ten dollars to his name. Now he’s swapping his luxury sedan for a cell.
Money can’t buy you love, but a US man who used Match.com to meet the supposed woman of his dreams showed his love’s money could buy a $A177,000 BMW — a car the 35-year-old used to skip town and leave his lady high and dry, until the law caught up with him.
The so-called “Sweetheart Swindler” known as John Martin Hill, 35, pleaded guilty last Wednesday to one count of theft by taking and one count of perjury, Georgia’s Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Mayfield said.
He was sentenced to seven years behind bars and another 13 on probation.
Hill convinced the woman — a widow with three children — that he was a millionaire and in love with her. They decided to wed within a week of meeting on the dating site, and Hill told her the $US80,000 ($A118,200) he took from her would go toward their dream home, as well as some furniture.
Corporal Michele Pihera told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) that once the woman gave Hill the money, she never heard from him again. The woman also didn’t know that Hill was reportedly already living in an apartment nearby with another woman and child and had only $US6 ($A8.87) to his name.
After Hill’s arrest, other women came forward and said they, too, had been duped by the local Lothario.
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According to the AJC, Hill had arrest warrants out in at least four separate states under various names. Authorities said his go-to move in the past has been to post bail and disappear. Investigators said they did not know the total number of women Hill had fleeced but confirmed he’d changed his name five times in the past few years.
The Gwinnett County Police Department says Hill had gone by the name of: Gregory Dutton, George Hill, Maverick McCray, Gregory Davis and Gregory Hill. He was wanted in Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.
In 2011, Hill was arrested by the West Long Branch police department in New Jersey on “several outstanding warrants and charged him with three counts of theft by deception,” according to the Long Branch-Eatontown Patch.
Hill was accused of taking money from young women after claiming to be an executive and advertising a job on Craigslist.
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“Hill made claims of being a CEO and owner of a company that specialised in obtaining scholarships for high school athletes,” Captain Larry Mihlon told Patch.
He would make contact with women looking for a job, set up an interview with them and then ask for cash upfront after taking their information.
Some of the company names used by Hill were College Bound Recruits and Athlon Sports.
In 2014, a Facebook page titled “Stop Gregory Hill” was created, detailing more accusations against the man.
This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission
