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Monday 25 September 2017

Lonely heart British chef, 40, is duped by a Ukrainian nursery worker he met online after sending her £1,600 to fly to meet him - only to be stood up


A man who sold his laptop and guitar to pay for his Ukrainian girlfriend to come to live with him has been left humiliated after she turned out to be a con woman.

Colin Orr, a chef from Edinburgh, met Olga Marchenko on penpal website Interpals and the two soon began exchanging messages.

Colin, 40, quickly fell for Olga, who said she was a nursery worker living in Lugansk, Ukraine, and he began sending money to support her and her young daughter.

In less than a month, Olga told Colin that she loved him and that she wanted to move to Edinburgh to marry him.

Over the next 5 months, the couple exchanged over 800 emails, thousands of Whatsapp messages and had many phone conversations where they would share pictures and talk about life, marriage, children and building a future together.

‘It was never sleazy,’ he told the Daily Record. ‘We were writing to each other every day and I liked it. She told me that she was a widow and her husband had died in the fighting out there because Lugansk is right on the frontline.’

Colin, who was conned out of £1,600 by Olga, said that despite early reservations, he had faith that the relationship was genuine because she had seemed so sincere in their communications.

‘She asked me for help financially and I said yes,’ he said. ‘I thought if I didn’t take a chance on her, I might be missing out on something that could have been amazing.’
Olga was due to arrive on July 1, six months after they had met.


However, when Colin, a father of one, went to the airport to meet her, she never arrived, despite having emailed him hours earlier to tell him he’d be able to spot her because she’d be wearing a pink T-shirt and her daughter a red cap.

In his innocence, Colin did not realise that he had been stood up and initially raised a missing persons alert. However, police were able to establish from her passport details that Olga was perfectly fine and was living outside of the UK.

Colin, who admits to being ‘naive’, remains baffled by her motives. ‘Why would she take my money? I’m just a working-class man and she knew that,’ he said.

‘She knew about how hard I was working and that I’d sold my guitar and laptop for her when she needed money.’


A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: ‘Police in Edinburgh were called to an address in Oxgangs following a report of concern for a 32-year-old woman.

‘The matter was reported to police on Thursday, July 6. Officers conducted inquiries and it was quickly established that the woman was living outside UK.

‘Officers have explained the circumstances to the complainer and appropriate advice has been given.’

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