Eamonn Holmes says he was left feeling "very vulnerable" after being conned out of £60,000 by a crook.
Eamonn Holmes
The 59-year-old TV broadcaster felt "suspicious of everyone" after fraudster Jay Cartmill swindled him out of thousands in 2014, and was only alerted when his bank asked if he had spent £25,000 on paving slabs.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper's Bizarre TV column, he said: "The effect it has on you is that it makes you suspicious of everyone and everything and you feel very, very vulnerable.
"I get this call and they say to me, 'Mr Holmes, this is your bank here. Have you just bought £25,000 of paving stones and 400 metres of wood panelling?' "
The TV presenter - who co-hosts 'This Morning' with his wife Ruth Langsford - initially thought he must have been scammed when he was on holiday in Dubai.
He recalled: "We were in Dubai at a Bedouin experience. And the guy said to me, 'I can't get a signal on the machine, I have to go to the top of that sand dune to get a signal'. And I thought, 'That's where it happened.' But it didn't happen there."
It was later found that the scam had actually taken place in Belfast when Cartmill - who also targeted presenter Stephen Nolan - posed as the host for two weeks in a hotel and ran up huge bills, including £25,000 on a marble fireplace.
Eamonn added: "The guy with the brain hacks your account, the Mafioso lot pay him money, they take your details and they live off them.
"It was the most ridiculous situation but the scandalous thing is that when it went to court the judge said it was a victimless crime because they will say the bank will reimburse me and I could afford it."
Cartmill was handed a two-year suspended sentence and did not serve jail time.
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