`Coward, thief, liar’: Widow’s emails to family of conman Ric Blum

An elderly widow ripped off by serial fraudster Ric Blum appealed in vain to his adult children to help recover her late husband’s stolen coin collection.

Ric Blum gives a speech at his daughter’s wedding in Bali in 2011.

An elderly widow ripped off by ­serial fraudster Ric Blum appealed in vain to his family to help recover her late husband’s stolen coin ­collection.

Andree Flamme’s family has found emails sent to and from Mr Blum’s adult son on Queensland’s Gold Coast more than a decade ago, detailing his father’s theft of the valuable gold and silver coins while he was a guest at her home in Brussels.

Mr Blum is now a central figure in inquiries into the disappearance of Queensland teacher Marion Barter, who vanished in 1997, aged 51, after they had an affair.

Andree Flamme, now 92, and her daughter Agnes Plume, at their home in Portugal last week.

In an email on June 17, 2010, Ms Flamme called Mr Blum “a coward, a thief and a liar” and made clear the severe impact of his betrayal. She wrote that when she returned from the shops earlier that month, her house was locked and Mr Blum had disappeared with her keys and the coin collection. “I sign off with the name which your dad called me: GRANDMA,” her email states.

Ms Flamme and her family followed up with another email on July 18, 2010, telling Mr Blum’s son, David, that she was about to contact Australian authorities and the media.

Mr Blum’s son replied by email the following day. “To whom it may concern. Be notified that my sister and I have nothing to do with our father,” his email stated.

“We live separate lives and we are not aware of his travels, doings or anything else – in fact I left home in 1999 and I have not seen him in the last six months.”

Ms Flamme’s suggestion that he could have some sort of tacit complicity in his father’s actions could be taken as extortion, he added. “In any case you are barking up the wrong tree and (I) warn you that I will seek legal advice,” the email states.

Ms Flamme replied by email to Mr Blum’s son that there was “no extortion of funds on my part”, and she was trying to recover what was stolen from her. “If you do not have anything to do with him, then give me his address so that I can contact him directly,” she wrote.

“I am not afraid of him. He is a COWARD. I am 80 years old, he has spoiled some of the years which remain in me to live!!!

“I urge your father to pay back the money expressly, in the interest of ALL! I will never let him go. NEVER NEVER!!!”

Mr Blum, now 83 and living in Ballina in northern NSW, denies any knowledge of what happened to Barter after their secret relationship. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing against his children, who could not be reached on ­Sunday.

Marion Barter with her children Sally and Owen.

The theft was raised at an ongoing NSW inquest into Barter’s death, after volunteer researchers assisting her daughter Sally Leydon found a record of a letter Ms Flamme and her family wrote to the Queensland governor in 2010.

Detectives then recovered the letter, but Australian police have never contacted Ms Flamme, 92, and her daughter, Agnes Plume, despite them being easily found by The Australian last week.

The emails are additional evidence of the theft that could be used at the Barter inquest, which may be further delayed by the revelations.

Mr Blum lied at the ongoing NSW inquest into Barter’s dis­appearance when he claimed that he had sent the coins back, the pair said.

They said he was also lying when he gave evidence that Ms Flamme had dementia, was in a wheelchair and “couldn’t put two words together” when he took the coins in 2010.

Mr Blum did not return phone calls and text messages over the past week.