A woman has pleaded guilty to fraud charges after hunting lonely men on dating sites and swindling them out of more than $2.7 million.
Sanaa Derbas, a western Sydney mother of four, pleaded guilty in Downing Centre District Court to 11 counts of dishonestly obtaining money by deception from six victims aged between 69 and 43 between September 2008 and March 2014.
Police found notebooks at the 41-year-old's home with the names of 349 men, along with her female alias' including "Sarina Lopez", "Sarrina" and "Marrisa".
Police also found 15 cellphones, court documents revealed.
"The offender, posing as different female persons attempted to commence relationships with these men," the documents read.
"Texts sent from this mobile telephone by the offender which referred to her mother's recent death on six separate occasions to six men."
It was also revealed in court that Derbas would meet men through dating services, invite them to a hotel room she booked after they transferred $600 to her bank account.Her mother was in fact alive and resided a short distance from Derbas' home.
She would then cancel the date, using her molther's death as an excuse.
She would then ask for money to help pay for the funeral costs or mortgage repayments saying her rich grandfather in Egypt would pay them back.
Victims were left almost penniless by Derbas.
One 51-year-old, paid her more than $87,214 with texts revealing he took some of that money out of his pension.
He responded to a request for money by saying: "I don't have anymore funds, I have $20 to my name."
