Con woman 'shaman' jailed for 10 years over 1m frauds

A woman who posed as a witchdoctor to con a string of affluent victims out of almost £1 million has been jailed for 10 years after a judge described her scam as the “worst case of confidence fraud” he had ever heard of.

Juliette D'Souza masqueraded as a shaman for more than 12 years, convincing 11 of her middle class "clients" to hand over thousands of pounds to solve issues such as curing terminal illnesses or problems conceiving a baby.

The 59-year-old, from Hampstead, an upmarket part of north London, told her victims the money was a "sacrifice" which would be used as a spiritual offering and hung off a sacred tree in the Amazonian rainforest.

Two other shamans in South America would perform rituals around the money before it was sent back and their problems would be resolved, she claimed.

But in fact she used the proceeds to fund an extravagant lifestyle including splashing out on £3,000 designer handbags, holidays and a property portfolio.

Her trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in London heard wild claims including that Princess Diana was on her client-list and how she warned the late Princess of Wales that she “would never see her sons again after she went to Paris”.

Jurors heard the fake witchdoctor also boasted about treating Prince Andrew and Robert Redford, the actor, and to have cured Monty Python star John Cleese's daughter of cancer.

She also told clients her sister was a PA to Prime Minister David Cameron.

Jailing D'Souza, Judge Ian Karsten QC said she had cast a "spell" over her victims and persuaded them to hand over the money or they would face "terrifying" consequences.

He told the court: "It is the worst case of confidence fraud I have ever had to deal with or indeed that I have ever heard of.

"The most serious aspect of this case is that you wrecked the lives of a number of your victims and you have done it out of pure greed."

He said an aggravating feature was that she spent the money on "high living" in the UK and abroad, which included owning expensive cars, jewellery and antique furniture, and even keeping a pet monkey called Joey which she kept in a cage at one of her Hampstead flats.

D'Souza persuaded people to part with sums of £30,000 or £40,000 at a time, telling them she had supernatural powers, before the cash was flown to Suriname to be hung from a magical tree.

During her trial, the court heard how one woman was persuaded to have an abortion by D’Souza after she paid her £170,000 to help her get pregnant.

The con woman told the victim, who cannot be named, that she should abort the child because it would be born seriously deformed.

Another victim was the mother of a ten-year-old boy with Down’s Syndrome who was tricked out of £42,000 when D’Souza claimed she could cure his behavioural problems.

Ruth Fillingham paid £169,000 from 1998 to 2004 to ward off the evil spirit of her deceased brother, save her partner from a non-existent tumour and ensure her eye surgery would be a success – which it was not.

Her boyfriend, Geoff Wheeler, handed over £195,000 in the same period, the court heard. Much of the money was supposed to secure his job, but he was still made redundant.

The court also heard Sylvia Eaves, an 83-year-old former opera singer, hoping to help her terminally ill sister and a friend suffering from cancer, handed over more than £350,000.

Outside court, Ms Eaves, who was commended for her ability to put a “brave face” on events by the judge, said she would be “a bit more careful” in future.

“I agree with it [the sentence] because she won't be doing it to anyone else but I just feel terribly sad that somebody so clever should resort to that,” she said.

“I just feel terribly let down that she could behave like that but she couldn't help it, obviously.”

She said she lost “a lot of money” to D'Souza and joked otherwise she would be spending her retirement taking her friends to the Ritz.

Her friend, Guy Oldman, who Ms Eaves had known for 50 years also became a victim, after she convinced him to pay D'Souza £57,000 to release nearly half a million pounds "held" by the taxman.

But instead of taking it to South America she went to Bond Street on shopping sprees, spending thousands on Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags and Cartier jewellery.

The elaborate hoax lasted for more than a decade, resulting in one of her clients losing her home and another left on the brink of suicide.

Outside court, Keith Bender an osteopath and former friend who referred many of his clients to D'Souza, appeared in tears after the judgement was read.

“I am just absolutely shattered,” he said, “I am tired and not in a good state. I mean I am happy but it's been such a long time - it brings it all back to you.”

D'Souza was convicted of 23 counts of obtaining property by deception and fraud relating to victims she targeted between January 1998 and June 2010.

The took just an hour to convict D'Souza, who had previous convictions for dishonesty and deception, after a four-week trial.

The total amount she defrauded in relation to the charges on the indictment was £908,400, but on the evidence given by victims the final sum was closer to £1 million.

Mr Karsten added: "You were telling people that you were a shaman, that is to say a spiritual healer in touch with the spiritual world.

"You told your victims that you had contacts with other shamans... and persuaded them that these were powerful figures who could exercise their power to solve the problems which they were concerned about.

"In each case you promised them that you would be able to resolve the problems by using your powers of communication with two shamans in Suriname, provided they paid a sacrifice."

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbHLnp6rmaCde6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwwcqnnLCrX5i%2FqrnEaGhpcGZqfnOAjnymp2WnpLqiuoysn5qlkaN6q63IpZydZZakv259j2awnpmiqHqwwsSrZGqlXZu%2FosHDrGWhrJ2h