A lottery liar who faked an £8.9million win is now being hunted by police for “romance fraud” after allegedly conning three heartbroken grans out of £400,000.
Conman John Eric Wells was jailed for three years for his jackpot scam, and the bizarre crime was later dramatised in a film starring Martin Kemp.
Wells tricked his wife, family, friends and bank managers while going on a frenzied spending spree.
Now, more than 20 years on, he is accused of leaving a trail of devastated women in his wake.
One claims he caused her to sell her home and fleeced her of her life savings after posing as a millionaire hotelier.
Fantasist Wells, whose lottery lie in 1996 inspired the movie Can’t Buy Me Love, also starring Michelle Collins, is on South Yorkshire Police’s wanted list.
Officers fear he has fled the UK, and may be up to his old tricks.
The Mirror has discovered he was last seen running a bar in South East Asia.
One of Wells’s alleged victims, Hazel Wilkins, 70, who lives with her daughter from Rusper, West Sussex, told us this week: “That man has ruined my life and who knows how many others.
“I had a lovely family home, a great job and I was happy when I met him. Now I have nothing and I will never be happy again. It’s too late to get back what he has taken from me.
“I worked really hard for nearly 50 years. He took everything away from me in three. I hate him so much.
"I think what he has done to me and my family every second of every day. He is the devil incarnate to me.”
Hazel claims Wells stole her life savings of almost £63,000.
He also pretended he was buying houses for her two daughters and backed out at the last minute, leaving one of them, who had a newborn baby, desperate and homeless.
Hazel felt she had to sell her own home to buy somewhere for her daughter and new grandchild to live. She then had to move in with them herself.
Wells also convinced Hazel to leave her job, telling her he had a 500-seater restaurant in Guernsey that she could manage, which never materialised.
Since he vanished in 2017, she has been paying back £17,000 in loans he’d taken out in her name – wiping out half her pension.
She says Wells also claimed he had cancer, and cancelled their wedding plans five times, saying that friends and family had died.
He told her he owned dozens of hotels around the world.
He went on frequent “business trips”, often sending her photos from exotic-looking locations.
Wells was never overseas, but working in his home town of Doncaster, South Yorks, where he was living a double life, she claims.
Wells was executing an almost identical scam on another woman, who Hazel has since been in touch with.
She claims: “He was stealing from her to take me on cruises and stay in penthouse suites in top hotels, and creaming money from my account to spend on her.
"I now know every word he said was a lie. I don’t know how I’ll ever trust anyone again.
"He was so believable it’s frightening. I worked as a security supervisor at Gatwick airport. I used to interview people to suss out lies. But he went right under my radar.
“There were moments when I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn’t right but I was so in love with him, I refused to act on it.
"How I wish I had. I feel so stupid. But he was convincing, charming, funny and kind. Love is blind and I was head over heels. ”
Hazel’s daughter, Lynsey, said: “Mum has always been so good with money, never in debt, always had a lovely home and taught us to budget.
“Now I watch her counting the pennies in her purse every day just to buy food. It makes me want to cry.”
After three years together, Wells, vanished hours after attending Lynsey’s wedding.
He’d claimed he was off on a business trip, but Hazel hasn’t seen him since.
She was alerted to her financial problems by her bank and she then contacted police.
It was only after her bank uncovered the full extent of her losses that she learned about Wells’s dodgy past, and the film it inspired.
The 2004 ITV movie’s screenplay was by EastEnders’ writer Tony Jordan.
It told how, under the name Howard Walmsley, painter and decorator Wells faked a massive Lottery win in 1996 to prop up his failing marriage to then wife, Kathy.
He even held a “celebration party” with 60 guests showing up.
In a documentary before he was jailed, he said: “Our marriage was at breaking point – she’d had enough and she wanted a divorce.
"That’s when I come up with the idea to stop debt collectors coming to the doors, people harassing us – that I’d won the Lottery.
“People paid more attention to me. They seemed to want to be with me.
“All I wanted to do is treat Kath to a holiday. It just got out of control.”
At his trial, Judge Mrs Jane Shipley told him: “You conned your victims, but you will not con this court. You lived in a fantasy world.
"You wanted to aspire to the high life, but you seem to lack what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur – so you embarked on a scheme of lies and deceit.”
Wells persuaded banks and businesses to give him credit and car firms to lend him vehicles.
When cheques bounced, he said he was having trouble getting money from his overseas accounts.
He showed paperwork that appeared to give evidence of his fortune.
When police arrested him, he still claimed to be a Lottery winner.
Last week, South Yorkshire Police released his picture and a statement.
It said: “Officers are asking for your help to find wanted man John Eric Wells.
Wells is also believed to go by the names Howard Walmsley and Howard Hemmings.
The 61-year-old is wanted in connection with three high-value romance frauds, during which three victims lost money totalling more than £400,000.
“The offences are reported to have taken place from September 2014 onwards.
"The victims lived in locations including Doncaster, Sussex and London.
"Police would like to hear from anyone who has seen or spoken to Wells recently. It is possible Wells is currently living outside the UK.”
