The Reason Back in 1996 John Eric Wells lied about winning
a big lottery to his wife Kathy.
The fake lottery roller coaster began when they were out shopping, and Kathy saw a pair
of shoes she liked.
They were deep in debt, and she knew that they couldn’t afford it.
John simply didn’t make enough money to give her the lifestyle she wanted.
She was reaching a breaking point, and John felt it.
So that was the moment John just made up the lottery lie right then and there.
He told her to buy the shoes.
In fact, he told her to buy whatever she wanted because he confessed that he had won the lottery!
He hoped that his little lie would save their marriage.
He thought that if he could buy her everything she wanted, she would fall in love with him
again.
At first, Wells lied only to his wife Kathy about winning money in the UK National Lottery.
But the news soon spread like wildfire.
Spreading Fake News And his lottery lie became bigger by the day.
It became like a rock rolling down a mountain, gaining more and more momentum and getting
much more dangerous.
Lying was something that was always with John.
For example, his own wife didn’t even know his real name of John Eric Wells.
She knew him as Howard Walmsley!
As soon as John made up the lie about winning, they immediately started living like a royal
couple.
Remember John didn’t ACTUALLY have the money.
But John had to keep up the lies of being a new rich man.
He lied to banks, luxury car dealerships, and contractors.
He even had a “celebration party” with his closest friends, with all them believing
him to have won the lottery.
But Kathy naturally became suspicious about his supposed big win.
John never actually told her how much he won.
And she never saw any money.
The bills kept on piling up.
So she pieced together about the time that he claimed to win the lottery, and concluded
that he must have won the jackpot for roughly $8.9 million pounds in the British lottery!
And he just smiled and nodded, making his lie even bigger than he wanted to.
By this time he was all in.
He knew that it would all catch up with him someday.
And of course, it did.
But he still went through with it.
Rich Decisions In order to keep up the image of a rich guy,
Wells started making massive purchases.
For example, he commissioned an architect to plan an extension on his house and a luxury
swimming pool.
He started conning luxury car dealerships.
One Jaguar dealership in Doncaster sold him three cars, and Wells paid for all of them
by writing bad checks.
He paid for everything with bad checks.
One time he even pretended to be interested in a 17th century farmhouse just to seem like
he’s rich.
But, he never got the expensive farmhouse.
Nor did he get to drive any of the cars because the checks bounced before he could get his
hands on them, but the con was enough to keep Kathy happy.
And, it stopped the debt collectors from coming around for a while.
The one business John actually was able to successfully con was banks.
It turned out that being a fake lottery winner was actually way better than having a perfect
credit score.
He and Kathy were able to live lavishly with bank loans, but it would all come crashing
down.
Other Women So, banks weren’t the only ones who John
got money from.
Even though he got money from the bank, he still needed more money.
So he started dating other women just so he could steal money from them!
These ladies loaned John money, just so he could keep up his fake lifestyle with Kathy!
These women loaned him money because they thought that since he was a big lottery winner,
he could pay it all back.
Ultimately, he took the money of these women and never paid them back.
Instead, Wells filled their heads with false promises about leaving his wife.
He even talked about buying houses and moving in with them.
None of this actually happened, but it did set the stage for what would become the biggest
cons of his life.
Lottery Fallout After 3 years of life changing lies, law enforcement
officials finally caught up with John in 1999.
When Walmsley was finally arrested, he actually initially tried to keep up the lie with the
police!
He told them about the £8.9 million pounds that he won, but they didn’t believe it.
He was charged with 12 counts of deception and one count of false accounting.
Kathy left him and told all their friends that he didn’t win any money.
Wells’ fantasy world had real-life consequences for the companies and people he told lies
to.
In the end, Wells’ fake lottery win allowed him to con roughly 100,000 pounds from the
different businesses and the two women he lied to before his lies all caught up with
him.
Amazingly, his wife Kathy jumped to his defense in court, even after learning he was with
other women.
She got back together with him even after everything came out.
She told the judge that Wells was only trying to save their marriage.
But of course, the judge wasn’t having any of it.
She said that he couldn’t con the court.
She sentenced him to three years behind bars.
After his story went public, John Wells’ fame skyrocketed after his big lie was exposed.
The press was calling him “The Cassanova Conman” and “The Lotto Liar”.
There was even a movie about his escapades called Can’t Buy Me Love!
Can’t Buy Me Love People in Britain at the time were glued to
the Wells trial.
So it’s no surprise that there was a movie made about his crime, and it was a huge success.
Can’t Buy Me Love was the made-for-tv movie produced by the ITV network that told Wells’
story.
In the movie, real-life Kathy and John Eric Wells are named Alan and Donna Harris, but
aside from the name change, the rest of the plot is true to real life.
Even with a movie made about how he would steal from people, women from all over the
world fell for his charm once again!
Sugar Mama Scams Three years behind bars definitely didn’t
reform John Wells.
It only made him more careful.
Scamming and lying is who he was and it seems like he can’t escape it!
This time, Wells decided to set his sights on lonely older women with lots of money.
He was able to scam at least three different victims out of around more than 400 thousand
pounds beginning back at least in 2014.
One victim was Hazel Wilkins.
Somehow he was able to steal almost all of Hazel Wilkins' entire life’s savings of
63,000 pounds!
Wilkins had a great job, a great family, and a comfortable nest egg when she met Wells.
But somehow he took all her money during a relationship built completely on lies.
When he first met Wilkins, he pretended to be a millionaire, just like he did with all
the other ladies he met.
Misrepresentations
He told her that he wanted her to work for him at one of his big restaurants that could
seat 500 people.
Of course, he didn’t own any big restaurants.
Almost his entire life was completely fake.
For some unknown reason, he convinced her to quit her job and come work for him!
But that lie was just the tip of the iceberg.
He also pretended to be a wealthy hotel owner.
He propped up his lies by showing off his supposedly lavish lifestyle.
He would show Wilkins photographs from faraway exotic places and say that he was away on
business.
But instead, what he was really doing when he was away from her was scamming other women!
Wilkins wasn’t the only lady Wells was scamming.
What he would do is use the cash he was stealing from other women to take Wilkins on vacations
such as tropical cruises!
This is almost like a pyramid scheme involving grandmas!
Fake Proposals
Wells eventually proposed to Wilkins to get married just so he could keep scamming her.
This is probably something he did with all the ladies he was scamming.
But as you’d expect, he would just keep canceling their wedding plans.
He canceled on Wilkins five different times with a different excuse each time.
He would lie about a friend that just passed away.
Then it would be a family member that passed away.
He even went as far as claiming that he had cancer just so he could put off the ceremony!
Other People Affected His lies weren’t just ruining her life.
It was people around her as well.
For example, he told Wilkins that he’d buy one of her daughters a house.
But then he took back his offer at the last second.
Her daughter and her newborn baby wound up homeless, thanks to his lies!
Wilkins instead sold her house and bought a bigger one, just so she and her daughter
could move in together.
Finally, just as a final farewell gift, Wells took out 17,000 pounds in HER name and just
quietly disappeared in 2017.
Obviously, this left Wilkins heartbroken, poor, and completely confused.
She started doing background research on who HE really was.
And that’s when she learned that he was actually John Wells, and it’s also when
she discovered other victims of his sugar mama scams!
How was he able to keep so many seemingly intelligent women in the dark about his lies?
It’s because Wells had a great system that allowed him to lie and cheat his way into
the hearts of women looking for love.
Dating Sites Is it any surprise that Wells lied about pretty
much everything in his online dating profile?
Wells claimed to be a millionaire and he used several different names, such as Howard Hemmings
and Howard Walmsley.
This might be why it was so difficult for most of the women to pin him as John Wells,
even if he had a hit movie made about him.
He also made them an attractive offer that was tough to refuse.
Wells’ pickup line was quote “if you are a lady and can enjoy life to the full, drop
me a line, and let’s grow old together.”
Current Whereabouts So where’s John Wells today?
After scamming sugar mamas in the UK, he’s supposedly disappeared to Asia.
According to one of Well’s old friends, Wells found a wealthy Vietnamese woman who
bought him a bar for 23,000 pounds and he’s currently running it.
Ironically, this Vietnamese is allegedly a wealthy hotel owner, which is exactly what
he told Wilkins HE was!
Except in the case of Well’s rich Asian sugar momma, it appears to be true.
Wells’ Vietnamese sugar mama pays for his lavish lifestyle even if he’s working at
his bar.
Wells’ bar staff apparently is willing to cover up for him too.
When they were questioned about where he is, they said that he had gone back to England
and new ownership was in charge!
Most people think that he doesn’t have any plans to go back to the UK.
Extradition laws vary in most parts of the world, so it would seem like Wells got off
free and clear.
Wells’ Facebook page lists his location as Dubai, even though his friends claim he’s
in Vietnam.
Fake geo-tagging is easy to do, and it very well might be yet another way that Wells is
keeping the police off his tail.
On the other hand, is it possible that he’s just running another scam on another unfortunate
woman in Saudi Arabia?
Still, the South Yorkshire police haven’t given up hope that John Eric Wells will have
another day in court.
An active Facebook page still lists Wells as a wanted man.
Here’s what’s next!