Beauly woman cons family out of £35,000 with Hollywood 'work of fiction'
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A woman conned her own family in a £35,000 bogus Hollywood actress fraud.
Ann Dunlop (68) claimed a woman she knew was being lined up for million pound contracts and convinced her brother to hand the woman cash to help her make the breakthrough.
She stated that the woman was mingling with A-listers such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Beyonce as well as being managed by US entertainment executive Irving Azoff.
Dunlop, of Beauly, also induced her sister Jean and her husband with the string of lies.
Dunlop later requested the pair pay her and the woman's gas and council tax bills as she did not have enough money.
She was found guilty of defrauding her family a total of £35,368 at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Kevin McCarron said: "I'm driven to the conclusion that what she was telling her family was a work of fiction worthy of every one of the screenwriters or playwrights mentioned in this case.
"It is clear she led her family down a merry dance through this episode.
"She perpetrated a pretence that was clearly false to everyone."
The court heard during the trial that the woman had appeared in a non-speaking role in a BBC period drama as well as a TV show starring comedian Noel Fielding.
Dunlop's brother was approached by her and the woman in March 2016 after he sold his business.
He stated that he handed over £5000 to the pair in order for the actress to "build her career" and told the court he was informed by Dunlop that the woman was being represented by Irving Azoff.
He said: "There was talk about meeting Beyonce and Jay Z...movies with Quentin Tarantino and Michael Keaton.
"She went to the Oscars to make various connections.
"Azoff was her manager, she met Leonardo Di Caprio and she was working on promotional activity for Chanel which would go alongside her movies."
The family were also told that the woman was set to star in a movie version of the musical Wicked, directed by Tim Burton.
Dunlop's brother said he was unaware of the figure the woman was to receive but believed it was millions and handed over a further £27,000 to the pair as he heard that Dunlop and her husband, who also lived with them, were "struggling."
Prosecutor Redmond Harris asked about any repayment to which he replied: “It was promised...this was made clear by phone calls and texts."
He was not paid back though and his suspicions rose after the woman failed to appear in a Chanel Christmas advert in 2016.
He hired a private investigator to keep tabs on the woman and told the court: "[We wanted] To establish if there was a relationship with Irving Azoff and if it was true that she was an actor and was there any basis to what we had been told in previous months."
Mr Harris asked: "Following things with the private investigator, were your suspicions greater or unfounded?"
He said: "It confirmed what our fears were."
He met Dunlop in a London pub in 2017 but did not receive a satisfactory answer as to why he had not been paid back.
Mr Harris asked: "What do you know about the woman's acting career?"
He said: "From internet searching, there was no career to my knowledge."
Dunlop's brother-in-law claimed he was under the impression Dunlop and the woman were living a "movie type of lifestyle in London" and recalled visiting the pair at their Notting Hill home for Dunlop's 60th birthday party.
He said: "I had never seen so many bottles of champagne...the champagne was on tap there."
He said the woman shopped at Harrod's and went to handbag stores in London.
He paid a £600 gas bill for Dunlop in November 2016 before transferring £1000 of his overdraft to her and said Dunlop told him he would be repaid in two weeks.
He added: "The explanation was there was a large sum of money in Coutts Bank but it was put in an investment fund and it was not available immediately but it would be sorted out."
He said he was later told by Dunlop that Tim Burton had collected the woman's bank cards and put them in a safe.
Mr Harris asked about his relationship with his wife's family before the bank transfers.
He said: "I thought I had married into the Waltons...I didn't know I had actually married into the Dingles."
Dunlop told the court she believes the woman did star in the roles she had been informed about and claimed she asked for money from her family as her husband became unwell and had to stop working.
She told the court the ‘actress’ is to appear on a US TV show which she has filmed one episode of so far.
Kevin Banks, defending, asked if Dunlop and the woman want to pay her brother back.
She said: "Yes, as she is still due money from the film."
Mr Harris asked Dunlop why the woman was not at court to come to her rescue.
She replied: "I didn't want her to come. My husband has to have someone at home but I didn't want to put her through this – what can she say that I can't?"
Sentence was deferred pending background reports until the end of the month and first offender Dunlop was granted bail meantime.
