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00:00A beard, a bigger belly.
00:04Marianne told me she was a shaman.
00:07She had wit, she had charm, she had talent.
00:12But she was bad.
00:15It felt like I was confronting something that was really evil.
00:21She was the perfect bogeyman.
00:23A witch doctor in the middle of Hampstead,
00:26conning rich people out of a million pounds.
00:30I thought she might be the biggest female fraudster in UK history.
00:38The victims lost everything.
00:42It's just so sad.
00:44Julietta Cesar was the most dangerous person I ever dealt with.
00:49The story isn't finished. The story isn't finished.
00:53What exactly happened to Isabel Cook?
00:56I've always known that there are parts of this story
00:59that should be investigated and haven't been.
01:05The story is a story.
01:06There isn't one victim of Juliette D'Souza, who wasn't wrecked by her.
01:20You've got all these hurting people in London who've lost between three and seven million pounds.
01:29No one had seen her since the end of 2006, some two years earlier.
01:37But she was believed to be in Suriname, where she claimed to have connections to shamans.
01:43As a journalist, I felt a responsibility because the authorities have failed.
01:49Nobody has tried to hold Juliette D'Souza to account.
01:58So I went to Suriname seeking a sit-down interview to give her a chance to talk about the allegations against her,
02:11that she was a fraudster, she's a false prophet, who has pretended to be a spiritual healer in Hampstead.
02:23I had to find her.
02:26The first thing you do on arrival is find a fixer.
02:32They know how things work.
02:34When I told the fixer why we were in Suriname and who we were going to see, the colour drained from his face.
02:45She was living with a man called Armand Chinaton.
02:50I'd been told that he was a senior police officer, also the head of immigration.
02:57And I understood at that moment that this assignment was going to be a little bit trickier, even than I had thought.
03:06If you're exposing someone as a fraudster who's taken advantage of vulnerable people to an unfathomable degree,
03:22you need to know what they look like, because someone somewhere might think,
03:29ah, but she's the woman that my aunt is involved with.
03:36And so we've got two objectives here.
03:40I need to get my interview, but John, my photographer, needs to get his photographs.
03:47And so I had the idea of renting an apartment and keeping the house under observation.
03:59With journalism, you spend quite a lot of time just waiting.
04:03In this case, waiting for a sight of D'Souza.
04:06You go to the window and watch.
04:12You chat.
04:13You go back to the window.
04:17Next day, the same.
04:19The day after, the same.
04:24On day five, we had a sight of her.
04:28It was the fixer's car when we did the pictures.
04:35I'd seen photographs of her in London when younger.
04:38There was no doubt in my mind that the woman who came out of the house was D'Souza.
04:43She had dyed blonde hair, tied back.
04:48She was just pottering.
04:50She was just pottering.
04:51She was walking to her car.
04:53Now, this is a sweet moment because we have documentary evidence she was in Suriname.
05:03I was taken by surprise when an anonymous-looking white car emerges from the side of the house
05:15and cruises past her slowly with the driver taking a good look at us.
05:22At that moment, it's clear this is Armand Chinaton, D'Souza's partner, the senior police officer, head of immigration,
05:33the man who made the fixer go pale.
05:36I said, I think we should go back to the hotel.
05:47But as I was driving, I realised that Mr Chinaton was following us.
05:54I could see him in the rearview mirror.
05:57So I slowed down and down and down.
06:04The white car following slowed down and down and down.
06:10There's no doubt at that moment you are being followed.
06:18It's a slow-motion pursuit.
06:24I can remember a feeling of relief of getting back to the hotel.
06:30And then, not relief.
06:34Slowly, one-by-one, people wearing dark blue shirts take up position in different bits of the hotel.
06:45I knew I wasn't being followed in the hotel, but I was being watched.
06:53But it was obvious it was time to leave the country.
06:56So I was hoping for a sit-down interview, and I didn't achieve that.
07:04The priority now is safety.
07:08My task was to get the photographs back to London.
07:11Magazines don't work without photographs.
07:14The photographs were put onto a hard drive.
07:17There was a sense of urgency to it, because you don't know if there's going to be a knock on the door in the night.
07:26The next day, in the airport, three men came up to me in the departure line and asked me to go with them.
07:34The man wanted to know why I was in Paramaribo.
07:41And I told him that I was there to write a travel feature for the Sunday Times.
07:45And during the interrogation, one of the other two men was going through my luggage with the hard drive,
07:56which had all the evidence about Julia D'Souza.
08:01And the man doing the search reaches the bottom of the rucksack and stops.
08:07And so I sit there, trying to have no reaction,
08:14because I'd put the hard drive inside my dirty underwear at the bottom of the rucksack.
08:22But in this case, that was where the search ended.
08:25He went no further.
08:27Saved by a dirty underpants.
08:29Yes, yeah.
08:31Dirty underwear buys you ten seconds of hesitation.
08:35And they let me get on the plane.
08:48I didn't manage to achieve the interview that I'd gone to Suriname to get.
08:56And therefore, I was never likely to be able to answer the most intriguing question about her, which is, why?
09:05But there was enough evidence against her to convince me and to convince the newspaper's lawyers that a story could be published.
09:20So I wrote the article.
09:22As soon as this magazine came out, I bought four copies.
09:32I couldn't wait to get my hands on this, actually.
09:35Because, you know, after 12 years there, to finally actually have the truth finally revealed.
09:42My hope on publication was that this would achieve the justice for the group of victims.
09:51I thought that once it was in black and white, the police would do something.
09:56It was a fabulous thing.
10:01This woman's been exposed and that, you know, if she tries anything else, she'll be stopped on her tracks.
10:07You know, we hoped for results at the end of all of this.
10:10And I thought, you know, the truth really will set us all free.
10:15Unfortunately, there was no reaction on publication.
10:21There's silence.
10:22There was no police investigation.
10:24Juliette D'Souza was not held to account.
10:28It felt like a total failure, to be honest.
10:30If you've laid out in black and white, the worst that you think a human being could do, and nothing happens,
10:43what message are they going to get?
10:46The freedom that they believe they have to carry on, it's only going to be reinforced.
10:52I really did feel that all hope had been lost, really.
11:04It took me a long time to kind of come back into the real world, actually.
11:09Because, you know, horribly, I'd been quite clearly, obviously, living in a lie.
11:17And I was just scared of her being out there.
11:22My aunt was the kindest person you'd ever meet.
11:32And to think that she was taken advantage of in such a way just, well, it just breaks my heart.
11:40Sylvia had been giving to Sue some money to cure Margaret, my mother.
11:46She'd been in hospital for a long period of time.
11:49Allegedly, the money's going to Sue Renan, a shaman that's blessing it.
11:59She wanted to believe.
12:01She just didn't want her sister to be going through that.
12:05She put her trust into this woman.
12:07And then Juliette de Sousa disappeared for a while.
12:14And my mother passed away.
12:18Sylvia was absolutely devastated.
12:21It was her little sister and she missed her terribly.
12:24And, uh, she was battling with her dementia.
12:31She'd been conned out of a large sum of money.
12:35But none of us were aware that Juliette de Sousa just kept feeding and feeding and feeding off of her.
12:42When Margaret died, what Sylvia said to me was she'd left her approximately $230,000 to $250,000.
13:05That was a heck of a lot of money.
13:07Sylvia had complained about the bathroom.
13:13And I said to her, I said, well, Sylvia, look, you've got your money from Margaret.
13:17Why don't you get yourself a new bathroom?
13:21And then suddenly, out of the blue, she said to me,
13:25I don't know how I'm going to pay for this bathroom.
13:27I haven't got enough money.
13:30And the alarm bells rang.
13:31What's happened to your inheritance?
13:34Where has it gone?
13:38And I learned de Sousa had come and she had taken money from Sylvia in cash.
13:49When Margaret died, this is when de Sousa came back from Suriname.
13:55I started to feel absolutely sick.
13:57I got a call from a woman who introduced herself as Maria Feeney.
14:05She was piecing together what was happening between her friend Sylvia and de Sousa.
14:15She told me that Juliette de Sousa was still defrauding Sylvia Eves.
14:25But it was of different fraud.
14:26One day, Sylvia gets a phone call from a Mrs. Brown,
14:34HM Revenue of Customs official at Heathrow Airport.
14:38And Mrs. Brown said,
14:40We're holding your half a million pounds,
14:43but we need a release fee of £57,000.
14:47In cash.
14:50Sylvia managed to raise the money to pay the release fee.
14:53£57,000 to get her sacrifice money back.
14:59But it was clear that Mrs. Brown didn't exist.
15:07Juliette de Sousa was Mrs. Brown.
15:10She was posing as a customs agent and saying,
15:15We've got your money at the airport and you need to pay this money to get it out.
15:19She was conning her right up to the very last minute.
15:23The total sum Sylvia lost was close to £600,000 to give or take.
15:28When we had to let her know what was going on,
15:35she was completely devastated.
15:38She would say,
15:40Why did she do this to me, Maria?
15:42Why?
15:43With the onset of dementia,
15:46it took a long time for her to realise
15:50that this woman is a massive conwoman.
15:57This was Juliette de Sousa's most serious error
16:01because she crossed over into definitely a crime
16:05because she impersonated a public official.
16:08This is a letter that Sylvia sent to the police station.
16:17And it's very important.
16:21I have been the unfortunate victim
16:23or the confidence tricks of a hardened criminal
16:26by using many ploys and guises
16:29and impersonation of a customs official.
16:32She managed to get everything I inherited
16:34from my mother, husband, sister and aunt.
16:36My resources are now completely gone
16:39and I've borrowed from friends money
16:41that I can never pay back.
16:43It's essentially a desperate plea for help.
16:47She's been scammed.
16:52I've never come across any cases
16:55with shamans and sacrifices before.
16:58I would say I'm a very open-minded person
17:00and this case was very difficult to investigate.
17:05Shamans don't ask for large amounts of money
17:09according to the research I did.
17:12Most frauds have financial transactions.
17:18That's the evidence chain that you follow.
17:20That's what leads to a conviction.
17:23Here, the money was all paid in cash.
17:25There wasn't any bank accounts that I could explore.
17:30There wasn't really a lot to go on.
17:35I felt that the only way this would work
17:39would be to find as many victims as possible
17:43because I could not believe
17:45that Sylvia would have been the only person
17:49that this would have happened to.
17:55We needed to know more about who this woman was.
18:02I suddenly got a call from the police.
18:05They said, we'd like to talk to you.
18:08Obviously, it was fantastic.
18:10I mean, finally, after all this time,
18:13we'd finally get in some sort of activity here.
18:18I had to give a statement about what had happened.
18:22This was a broken man
18:26who felt a lot of shame and guilt
18:30at the involvement that he'd had.
18:33But once he realised that,
18:36did everything he could to help the victims and witnesses
18:38and help the police.
18:39Keith had a lock-up
18:40with lots of the items that had been collected
18:44at Willoughby Road,
18:45which he said was D'Souza's possessions.
18:49I have actually held on
18:52over these last couple of years
18:54several boxes of evidence.
19:02We found these extraordinary bills.
19:04I mean, tens of thousands of pounds
19:07being spent all the time.
19:09You know, everything from Harrods
19:11to people like Cartier.
19:13There were lots of receipts
19:15for high-value and designer goods.
19:20And there were multiple envelopes.
19:23Even more importantly,
19:24empty open envelopes
19:26with victims' names on them.
19:28I mean, I kept them actually hoping,
19:31maybe somehow one day,
19:33that maybe it might become useful.
19:35And I remember the first time
19:39I saw an envelope,
19:41I kind of thought,
19:42wow,
19:43it really has happened.
19:45The victims
19:46who had described writing their name,
19:49date of birth,
19:50on envelopes,
19:51filled with cash,
19:52as requested by D'Souza.
19:55And the money was supposed to go to
19:57Syrian armed people
19:58on this tree
19:59to anything from
20:01help someone who was going to have
20:03an eye operation.
20:05Save someone's sister.
20:08It's all these extreme things.
20:10But to actually hold
20:12one of those envelopes
20:13in my hand.
20:15And it hadn't gone to Suriname.
20:18They'd been opened
20:19and the money had gone.
20:22There was nothing in there.
20:24So I needed to find
20:25as many victims as I could.
20:31So about three years after
20:33Bob's death,
20:35I was contacted
20:37directly by one of the two
20:39policewomen that were
20:41working on the case.
20:43I was actually hesitant.
20:45I really didn't want
20:47to be a witness.
20:48I suppose because
20:49I'm embarrassed by it.
20:51What changed your mind?
20:53I started hearing
20:54about the other cases.
20:57This was a
20:58massive fraud
21:01where people's lives
21:03had been ruined.
21:06The moment
21:07it struck me
21:09that she was
21:10a con artist
21:11and
21:12doing things
21:15that I was unaware of
21:16is when
21:16the
21:17police
21:19contacted me
21:20while I was in New Zealand.
21:21so the money
21:23she got off me
21:24unwittingly
21:26helped
21:27swindle people
21:28out of
21:29a tonne of money
21:31and
21:32the
21:33detective
21:34who got in contact
21:36with me
21:36that they were
21:37I was
21:39I was seen
21:40not as
21:41an accomplice
21:42but very much
21:43as a victim
21:44of
21:45this woman's
21:47lies
21:47deceit.
21:49I think
21:50for anyone
21:51who does
21:51end up
21:53on the receiving end
21:55of being scammed
21:56it's
21:56that's probably
21:58the hardest part
21:59is admitting
22:01to yourself
22:01and to others
22:02that
22:03you've messed up
22:05you've made a mistake.
22:09It's so hard
22:10to get people
22:10to talk
22:11there was naturally
22:13a sense of shame
22:14and guilt.
22:16the one
22:19victim
22:20who
22:21really broke
22:22my heart
22:23was
22:24a young woman
22:25who paid money
22:27to D'Souza
22:28for sacrifices
22:30so that she
22:32would get pregnant
22:32and she did
22:34get pregnant
22:35and D'Souza
22:39told her
22:40that there was
22:41something wrong
22:42with the child.
22:42to want
22:47so desperately
22:47to have a child
22:48and having
22:49someone tell you
22:50that
22:51you need
22:52to get rid
22:53of the child
22:53and help
22:55arrange
22:55for that abortion
22:56and she did
22:58have an abortion.
22:59There's a victim
23:00who
23:03was never
23:04even born
23:04and
23:07I find that
23:10so heartbreaking.
23:16These were
23:17really
23:17vulnerable
23:18victims
23:19people who
23:20were dealing
23:21with really
23:21tough times
23:22in their lives.
23:24There was some
23:25kind of trauma
23:25going on
23:26somewhere.
23:28People are
23:28desperate.
23:29That's the thing
23:30is that when
23:30you're in a dark
23:31place
23:32there is a
23:33reason why
23:34people
23:35turn to
23:36beliefs
23:37whatever they
23:38are
23:39in dark
23:40places.
23:41Some people
23:42pray
23:42to make
23:44things better
23:44and some
23:46people
23:46give sacrifices
23:47in different
23:48ways.
23:50I couldn't
23:51really take
23:51the investigation
23:52further
23:53until I'd
23:53spoken to
23:54Juliet.
23:55But nobody
24:01knew where
24:02she was
24:02at that
24:03time.
24:04She'd
24:05used
24:05various
24:06names,
24:07various
24:07addresses.
24:09She was
24:09very
24:10elusive.
24:11She was
24:12circulated
24:12as wanted.
24:14There was
24:15an image
24:16of her
24:16in public.
24:19We used
24:20that photograph
24:20as an
24:21identification
24:22walking around
24:24Hampstead
24:25asking people
24:26do you
24:27know that
24:27woman?
24:28Well she's
24:29got to be
24:29stopped.
24:32Then at
24:32the police
24:33station I
24:34heard someone
24:35else mentioning
24:36one of her
24:38aliases with
24:40regards to a
24:41different
24:41incident and
24:44I thought
24:44wait a second
24:45that might be
24:46her.
24:47By complete
24:48chance and
24:49overhearing that
24:50conversation
24:51DC Colonel
24:51realised that
24:53could be
24:53D'Souza.
24:54that was an
24:55opportunity to
24:56actually locate
24:58this person.
25:02Juliette D'Souza
25:03was arrested in
25:04June 2012
25:05in a care home
25:06carrying five
25:07mobile phones
25:08and over £2,000
25:09in cash.
25:11For arrest
25:11it was a huge
25:11moment.
25:18I went down
25:19to custody
25:20to do my
25:22interview with
25:22her.
25:22And I was
25:26taken aback
25:27by how calm
25:27she was.
25:29During the
25:29interview it
25:30was as we
25:30were out for
25:31dinner.
25:36D'Souza just
25:37denied everything.
25:38She said she
25:39didn't know
25:40anything about
25:40shamans, being a
25:42witch doctor,
25:43taking money from
25:45people, she
25:46didn't know
25:46anything about
25:47a tree in
25:47Suriname.
25:49I never had
25:50any discussions
25:51of any one of
25:52Keith Bender's
25:52patients regarding
25:53anything to do
25:54with the word
25:55sacrifice or
25:56threatening people
25:57or any kind of
25:58witch doctory.
25:59The only time that
26:00I've heard the
26:00word sacrifice is
26:02coming out of the
26:02Bible where
26:03Abraham or
26:04Jacob sacrifices
26:05his own son.
26:06I never believed
26:09her.
26:10It sounds really
26:11harsh and you
26:14have to be
26:14impartial as a
26:15police officer but
26:16you're also a
26:16human being.
26:18She was trying to
26:18manipulate me.
26:19I mean you could
26:20see straight away
26:21how manipulative
26:22she was.
26:24She was talking
26:25to me as if with
26:26her friends so she
26:27kept saying,
26:29no but Linda,
26:31I wouldn't do
26:31that.
26:32It probably helped
26:33that I just listened
26:34to everything she
26:35said.
26:36As a true
26:37friend would.
26:40As soon as I saw
26:41her and spoke to
26:42her I understood
26:43how this could
26:46have happened.
26:50I showed all the
26:51receipts and I
26:52showed photos of
26:53bags that had been
26:54found.
26:55All sorts of
26:56things that she
26:56clearly spent a
26:58lot of money on.
26:59She couldn't come
27:01up with any
27:01explanation as to
27:03how she funded her
27:05luxury lifestyle.
27:06She provided no
27:07other legitimate
27:08means of paying for
27:09any of that and
27:10therefore without that
27:11evidence that only
27:13supported the victim's
27:15case that they'd given
27:16her cash and she'd been
27:17using that cash to fund
27:18the lifestyle in London.
27:21For a local reporter, a long
27:42criminal trial or coming
27:43up, smack bang in the
27:45middle of your patch
27:45concerning a witch doctor
27:48is a gift.
27:52She got away with it for so
27:54long.
27:55It's hard to think of
27:56anything that touches this
27:57story for the depths of
27:59depravity.
28:02Everyone wants justice.
28:04The atmosphere, rather tense.
28:11I thought this would be a
28:13difficult case to secure a
28:15conviction on, even after I'd
28:18heard about the dreadful
28:19things she'd done.
28:22There's 11 victims who came
28:25to the trial and several
28:28witnesses as well.
28:29The amount of money that
28:33D'Souza was accused to have
28:35taken from these people was
28:38almost a million pounds.
28:42April 30th, when the trial
28:44started, that was the first
28:46time I saw Mary after so many
28:49years.
28:54This is the woman who'd
28:56messed my life up.
28:57I didn't actually really want
29:03to look at her, to be bluntly
29:05honest.
29:06I had enough of her.
29:11She was quite emotionless.
29:15When a client like Juliet
29:17Sousa comes to you, what were
29:19your initial thoughts?
29:21It was a very strange and
29:22unusual case.
29:24And the client wanted to
29:25defend it.
29:26The client denied the
29:27allegations against her.
29:28In other words, she was not
29:30involved in a fraud and that
29:33she wasn't duping people.
29:35She had done nothing wrong.
29:39The crux of the defence was
29:40that she had nothing to do
29:41with it.
29:42She never called herself a
29:43witch doctor.
29:43She never went to Suriname.
29:45But you could fill pages and
29:47pages with her denials.
29:48Keith was key to the investigation.
29:53He was key in the trial.
29:56It's quite a big deal to kind of
29:59go into a witness box.
30:01It's one of my profound fears.
30:07Mr. Fiddler put a question to me.
30:10Mr. Bender, are you not the master
30:15architect of this entire scan?
30:18I put it to you, Mr. Bender, that you
30:20organised all of this.
30:22And I said, that couldn't be further from the truth,
30:25Mr. Fiddler.
30:25The defence tried to blame Keith Bender
30:30for everything.
30:33That he had taken the cash.
30:36That he had used the cash.
30:39That everything was his idea.
30:43And it just, to me, went into a full-scale attack
30:48on Keith Bender.
30:50And, you know, it was a relatively good argument,
30:53given that he was actually responsible for
30:55shepherding quite a few people to D'Souza.
30:58And he was also responsible for taking
31:00a ton of money from people.
31:02In fact, the numbers going through
31:03Keith Bender's account looked incredibly
31:05criminal and indicting.
31:07We have to put the case, we have to put
31:08the case to him.
31:09That he was the one taking the money.
31:11And he was the one trying to extort.
31:13He was leading the people astray.
31:17I said, what are you talking about?
31:19How can he say such things?
31:22I'm just a courier.
31:23I'm just a go-petrine.
31:24I mean, Marianne was actually using my bank account
31:28because she didn't have one to actually cash
31:31these vast checks.
31:33But that's as far as it ever went.
31:36I was actually feeling an overwhelming sense
31:41of compassion for him.
31:44Keith had been groomed, he'd been abused, she'd sucked him in, and no, she was dumping everything
31:52onto him.
31:53There were moments when I had to pause.
31:56I had to, because otherwise I think I was going to, you know, just break down.
32:03It must have been horrible for Keith, because Keith knew that he'd facilitated her criminal behaviour.
32:11But he was always very transparent with everything.
32:15Keith voluntarily allowed the police to look through his bank accounts, and we saw no evidence that he had financially profited from this.
32:29Anything he'd done for her was because he was worried what would happen if he didn't.
32:36Keith was controlled by her.
32:38I was just looking forward to seeing her absolutely torn to pieces by the prosecuting chap.
32:50We were really waiting with bated breath to see what she was going to say.
32:55My real interest in her would be to know what was driving her.
33:01Why did it go from fraud for money to deliberately hurting people?
33:09Because that's the bit about her I don't understand.
33:11I don't understand the motives.
33:13She spoke with me.
33:15She was aware of the risks of not giving evidence, because there's an inference to be drawn,
33:19and how the case could have been made worse if she would have given evidence.
33:25She never went in the witness spots.
33:32I can understand why she didn't give evidence, because she would just be talking non-stop.
33:37I mean, she wouldn't do herself any favours being in the stand.
33:43I had no idea whether the case was going against D'Souza.
33:48It had to be proved beyond reasonable doubt that she'd done what she was accused of.
33:55There were a lot of victims at the trial.
33:59There was an opera singer called Sylvia, who was one of the most tragic.
34:05It was very traumatic for her having to relive all that experience in the trial.
34:08But she still wanted to see the woman brought to justice.
34:13The case is about the money.
34:15The charges are about the money.
34:17But the reason she's so dangerous for me is it's the other things she managed to make people do.
34:25It was really when the victim took the stand who had an abortion and described how she aborted the longed-for baby.
34:37It was heartbreaking.
34:39Such was the incredible control that D'Souza had over this otherwise rational woman that I realised we were really in a whole other level of what we would now call coercive control.
34:50It was definitely a turning point for me in the case.
34:56We eagerly awaited the final verdict.
35:00The jury came back after an hour.
35:10No one anticipated that they were going to come back within an hour.
35:13It's not normal.
35:14Especially for a five-week trial.
35:20The final verdict was guilty.
35:21She was convicted of 23 counts of fraud and obtaining property by deception.
35:31These victims could finally get it confirmed that this had happened, that they were right.
35:39It was just one of those perfect moments, you know.
35:44They think, yes.
35:45And as the jury were walking out, one of them turned to me and mouthed, thank you.
35:56And I've never forgotten that because...
36:01I guess just the relief that they'd seen what we'd seen and they'd not judged the victims.
36:08She's a convincing and manipulative liar who preyed on the vulnerability of her victims and completely betrayed their trust.
36:17She may end up going to prison.
36:19Do you think she should?
36:21Well, I think it would protect other people...
36:24..from her.
36:27I suppose she should.
36:30If it's the only thing that's going to stop her doing it.
36:34Yes.
36:34When I heard that she'd got a ten-year sentence, I thought, well, there is justice.
36:42Juliet de Cesar was the most dangerous person I ever dealt with.
36:48And the judge said in his sentencing remarks that it was the worst case of confidence fraud he'd ever seen.
36:56The judge revealed that her criminal history went far beyond the faith frauds.
37:07So I've got a list here.
37:09So in July 1982, three offences involving deception.
37:14June 1983, two offences of obtaining by deception.
37:18October 1983, two offences of obtaining by deception.
37:22November 1983, three offences of theft as an employee and an offence of obtaining by deception.
37:29November 1987, seven offences of obtaining by deception.
37:33Six offences of using a false instrument.
37:35Two offences of deception with intent to default permanently on liability.
37:39An offence of theft and three offences of forgery.
37:43What's the question?
37:45Well, that's quite...
37:46Is she a career fraudster, would you say?
37:49Doesn't it speak for itself?
37:52Juliet de Souza's release reignited Elsa himself.
38:03The End
38:20Julia D'Souza's release reignited my interest in this case.
38:26She was prosecuted for the Hampstead faith scam,
38:29but it feels like that's just the tip of the iceberg.
38:33In fact, on the final day of sentencing back in 2014,
38:38D'Souza was accused of committing an entirely different fraud crime.
38:43The day of the final sentence was finally passed.
38:48We came out of the courtroom and there must have been,
38:52I don't know, 20 or 30 Philippine women there.
38:55And one of them actually came up to me and she said to me,
38:59Marianne, she owed me £75,000.
39:02I said, £75,000 for what? She promised passport to me.
39:08You've got 11 people, however many it is, giving evidence in court.
39:13That's one scam based in Hampstead.
39:16Outside the court, you've got this group of Filipinos working overseas
39:20who had given D'Souza money because she could help with their ability to stay in Britain.
39:28What she had said to them was that she was second in command in the Home Office.
39:33This was the first time I realised that she'd actually been pulling another scam.
39:39I didn't know about this passport scam.
39:43You know, it's the leopard that never changes its spots.
39:46I mean, she's never going to change her spots.
39:49Juliet D'Souza never faced trial for her alleged role in the Filipino passport scam.
39:56There's so much about her criminal career we don't know.
40:00Are the various frauds we do know about connected?
40:03And where did they begin?
40:06So that's part of the unfinished business for me.
40:11She's definitely out of prison.
40:14Where is she now? What is she doing?
40:21This is a woman who's had lots of names.
40:26She's an expert in being hard to find.
40:29And so I am going to see someone who is an expert in finding the hard to find.
40:35Is she in Suriname? Might she have returned there?
40:42Hello. How are you?
40:45How's things?
40:46Yeah, no, I've got a new coffee machine, so we can give that a try.
40:50Do you want black or white, Tim?
40:52Well, that depends on how good the coffee is.
40:54I'm keen to get the update.
40:57Yes.
40:58Hell of a mystery.
40:59It's a story's go, isn't it?
41:01It's multi-layered.
41:02I'll follow you.
41:03Well, in fact, you don't know where you're going, do you?
41:05So let me...
41:06I think I'll follow you.
41:08I mean, I'm used to wading through the murky underworld, but this is something quite new.
41:15The witch doctor kind of fraud that she was operating, and also the Filipino visa scam.
41:23These people are all desperate, and so she's sniffing out the weak points in various elements of society.
41:29She's almost like a huntress, where she's hunting for the next con.
41:33I went to my contacts.
41:35I said, look, I'm trying to get into finding someone in Suriname.
41:38He said, well, look, what's her name?
41:40And that's where we laughed a bit, because I gave him, I think, nine or ten aliases.
41:44And he started saying, Glenn, this is going to take me a while to run this.
41:49From everything that's come back, I found she didn't go into that country after 2008.
41:56So she disappears.
41:58She's like a ghost after that date.
42:00Hmm.
42:01It's weird, because I went into this, Tim, and it was harder than I thought it was going to be,
42:09finding the people who knew D'Souza and her network.
42:14Some people got scared.
42:16I mean, I had two or three good conversations.
42:18Every time I rang them back, boom, they turned the phone off.
42:22And that happened more and more, which kind of got me going, well, hang on,
42:26they don't even want to talk about this woman.
42:29People were scared of her.
42:32Search goes on, I suppose.
42:37I think D'Souza might still be in the UK.
42:41There's been some sightings in North London,
42:46although none since two years ago.
42:50For someone with this history of prolific fraud,
42:56there must be so many victims.
42:59There'll be people who didn't talk to the police.
43:04Other networks that we don't even know about.
43:08And there's one victim I never met, I never interviewed,
43:13but I never forgot.
43:15Keith told me about her right at the beginning, in 2008.
43:20I mean, Isabelle Cook had been a patient of mine back in the 90s,
43:24and I'd actually put Isabelle on her because Isabelle had terrible problems.
43:28So that's kind of how she comes into it.
43:31And we can't talk to her, she's dead.
43:34Which is awful, terribly sad.
43:40Did you say Isabelle?
43:42Isabelle Cook.
43:43So really, in a way, ought to be investigated further,
43:46because I think everybody has their own story to tell.
43:49Isabelle Cook was obviously part of that network of people.
43:58She was young, but she had health problems.
44:01And D'Souza offered shamanic help with those.
44:08She should be enjoying the freedom of being in her thirties in London,
44:12and instead she's living secretively under a name that isn't her own.
44:19She died at 35 of natural causes,
44:23but there are a lot of unanswered questions
44:26about her relationship with D'Souza.
44:31She had a relationship with Sylvia
44:34that was rather like mother and daughter.
44:37So I'm going to meet Maria Feeney.
44:41Hello, Tim.
44:46Maria.
44:47Lovely to see you.
44:51Come on in.
44:52I've come to ask you about Isabelle Cook.
44:56Yes.
44:57I know that Sylvia was fond of her.
45:00I wonder if you could share with me what you know.
45:05Isabelle was a frequent visitor to Sylvia's flat.
45:10She was an alternative sort of therapist, a master, who mixed her own oils.
45:17I found her very endearing.
45:19And I could see why Sylvia liked her.
45:23It was a very close relationship.
45:26Now, I do know that she lost her mother early enough.
45:29She was troubled, there's no doubt about it.
45:32But it was quite sad in that way.
45:35It did worry Sylvia.
45:36And then, of course, you had the health issues.
45:39How did you find out that she was dead?
45:42The police came and they just dropped the bombshell that, yes, Isabelle was dead.
45:52She had problems.
45:53She had big problems.
45:54There's no doubt about it.
45:56But she was somebody's daughter.
46:00Hmm.
46:01I found this article from the Camden Gazette, which I'd like to share with you.
46:08The very distressing circumstances in which Isabelle was found.
46:15The partially naked body of a woman who died in mysterious circumstances was discovered next to £2,500 cash and a passport that showed she'd been living under a false identity.
46:29Oh, dear.
46:30The police launched an investigation after Miss Cook, who had been living under the name of Catherine Radford, was found dead.
46:40Did you know Isabelle was living under a false identity?
46:44It's definitely new to me.
46:46They were able to say that she died of thyroid disease.
46:50Hmm.
46:51The police decided there were no suspicious circumstances.
46:57Yeah.
46:58Am I right in thinking that among D'Souza's papers that Keith found in Willoughby Road was Isabelle Cook's birth certificate?
47:11Yes.
47:13Now, I still don't know why Juliette D'Souza would have Isabelle's birth certificate, but it was there.
47:23I was shocked.
47:24It was very disconcerting.
47:27The circumstances of Isabelle's death were very unusual.
47:31She was found with £2,500 in cash and a passport not in her own name.
47:42Keith found her birth certificate among D'Souza's papers.
47:48There are so many unanswered questions.
47:53There is another lead.
47:55This is the computer of George Hines, who was a journalist I met in 2014.
48:01Now, George has died and we've obtained it from his widow.
48:11He was just a dogged, energetic, public interest journalist who chased things down.
48:19George had been looking into Juliette D'Souza, the death of Isabelle Cook and the Filipino passport scam.
48:29On the hard drive is research.
48:32Very interesting folder here.
48:35These are notes from an interview George carried out with a young woman who was helping D'Souza with her travel arrangements in Suriname.
48:44She was also a victim of fraud by D'Souza.
48:48But this was different.
48:50She says,
48:52I met her in 1998, but she started ripping me in 2005 till end of 2006.
49:02D'Souza persuaded this woman that she was in trouble and her name was on an international wanted list.
49:09The woman handed over very large sums of money to have her name removed from these wanted lists.
49:16She told me she was a big shot lawyer in London with a lot of clients with big influence and that she would arrange everything.
49:30I gave Juliette about 92,500 US dollars.
49:40But I think by then I was already under her spell.
49:44And for fuck's sake, once again, she's at the centre of psychological violence and it's upsetting to read.
49:59According to D'Souza, this woman should leave Suriname and start a new life under a new identity as police are investigating her.
50:09And she said I should give her 5,000 euros so she could arrange a British passport for me with the new name of Isabel Cook.
50:19She told me that name was easy because that person already died.
50:26This is astonishing.
50:28You know, it's a serious offence to offer someone the identity of a young woman found dead in London.
50:40In London.
50:41I need to speak to this victim because I'd like to confirm some things she told George.
50:48Hello.
50:49My name is Tim Raymond and I wrote an article a long time ago about a woman called Juliette D'Souza.
51:02Juliette D'Souza.
51:03You know who she is, yes.
51:08And do you remember talking to a journalist called George Hines?
51:14He told me that you were offered a passport by Juliette D'Souza and it was in the name of Isabel Cook.
51:26Do you recall that at all?
51:29Yeah.
51:30You remember.
51:31You remember.
51:32So she offered you the passport.
51:34You didn't see the passport but you did pay for the passport.
51:39You paid for the passport, yeah.
51:42I can hear that it's upsetting even now to remember how it was.
51:47I don't want you to worry about anything.
51:50Thank you very much.
51:53Thank you for answering the phone and thank you for helping me.
51:57The story isn't finished, exactly.
51:59The story isn't finished.
52:01Bye-bye.
52:02She's confirmed that Juliette D'Souza offered Isabel's passport to her on a flight to Suriname.
52:18She paid 5,000 euros for it but she never received it.
52:23The connection between Isabel Cook and this new victim exposes a whole new level of exploitation and criminal enterprise.
52:34Both were already victims but then she uses the identity of one to further defraud the other.
52:41It's layer upon layer of fraud.
52:44But D'Souza's international web of lies eventually caught her out.
52:49And it was all thanks to this vulnerable lady in Suriname who confronted her tormentor.
52:55I found these articles from a Surinamese newspaper.
53:00They shed more light on what happened between this victim and D'Souza.
53:06The reporting confirms in 2008 Juliette D'Souza was convicted of a fraud in Suriname.
53:15It looks like D'Souza's passport was confiscated while the case was going to court.
53:21Which must have made it difficult for her to leave the country.
53:29If this woman hadn't taken D'Souza to court she would have been free to return to the UK.
53:35Keith would never have investigated her flat and discovered she was a con artist.
53:41I want to let him know all this.
53:45Hey Tim!
53:46How are you?
53:47I'm okay.
53:49Oh you've got something rather hot off the press there have you?
53:53I think I know why Juliette was absent for all that time.
54:00The sequence of events that led to the unravelling.
54:04So between 2006 and 2008.
54:07Yes.
54:08Do you know she was in legal difficulties in Suriname?
54:13No, I had no idea about it.
54:16She persuaded a woman she was in terrible trouble, scamming her of a lot of money.
54:24So it's thanks to this victim D'Souza ends up in a criminal case in Suriname.
54:30The dates of the court case are in line with the time Juliette disappeared to Suriname and everything unravelled in Hampstead.
54:39And that's why she couldn't come back to London.
54:43I can tell you that **** paid a very heavy price.
54:47Yeah.
54:48The extreme isolation.
54:50Yes.
54:51Just like you.
54:52So here are you in London.
54:54Yeah.
54:55And here is a woman in another part of the world.
54:59And you're going through, you're going through a parallel experience.
55:03Yeah.
55:04Super familiar.
55:05This is actually the most extraordinary part.
55:10Having put this woman in fear, she offered the woman a passport for the change of identity in the name of Isabel Cook.
55:22Oh, shit.
55:23And my heart's beating harder.
55:27Oh, my lord, extraordinary.
55:31Jeez.
55:32I can't believe it really.
55:34She is a right piece of work, this lady.
55:39We'll never know the full extent of her crimes and why she did them.
55:45She remains an enigma.
55:48The scale and complexity of her lies, the number of lies that she had going on simultaneously, is unparalleled.
55:59And given her track record, I don't think it's the last we'll hear of her.
56:06But what I've learned is being human means that when times are tough, we need something or someone to believe in.
56:18And that's what she exploited, and that's why it's so outrageous.
56:24And this is a story that teaches you quite a lot about human resilience and the power of friendship.
56:34These things are more powerful, and I'm grateful for that.
56:47I am grateful for that.
56:48The power of friendship and the power of friendship and the power of friendship and the power of friendship.
56:53He's getting better. He's forgiving himself a bit more.
57:15Juliet Souza robbed me of ten years of my life. Now my life is great. I think she can bring me down to earth and I love that. Because you've got to move on.
57:35Her ashes are now with her sisters in Holland Park.
57:38If you'd have some last moments with her, what would you say to her?
57:44I just remind her how much we loved her.
57:50Sylvia was grateful for the friends that she had.
57:54He said, Juliet Souza may have relieved me of my money, but she could not take my friends away.
58:14She said, Juliet Souza may have been there and went to attend.
58:16She said, Julietou may have been a little and her life täll in her life.
58:20She said, Julietou may have been you few months ago.
58:22With her, we've been to her.
58:24And we had to spend a while.
58:26This was a very long time ago.
58:28We're still there until a while.
58:30We're still there.
58:32We're still there again.
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