A British Personal Trainer Allegedly Conned His Trust Fund Manager Lover Out Of $265,000

Personal trainer Jason Thomas allegedly swindled £175,000 (approximately $264,500) from a trust fund manager after saying he loved her, a London court heard this week.

Luisa Smith, the fund manager at Capita Trustees in Jersey, stripped money from two accounts and remortgaged her apartment for her beau, the Daily Mail reports.

Prosecutors say Thomas told Smith he needed the money to pay a drug debt, while instead spending the cash on finer things like a boat, Mercedes Kompressor, Rolex watches, and a jet-ski.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said about Thomas: "He used this woman to fund an extravagant lifestyle. The Crown say Jason Thomas has delusions of grandeur and has an over-inflated feeling of self-worth which his personal training could not satisfy. He targeted a woman in a good job and he told her that he needed her cash because he was in debt to drug dealers or that his own clients had not paid him. And so the woman paid up, wanting to impress the man she loved."

Thomas denied the charges of conspiracy and acquiring criminal property.

For her part, Smith's misconduct was discovered in 2009. She was fired from her job, convicted on two counts of fraud, and sentenced to two years in prison.