A NOTORIOUS conman who traveled the world posing as a rockstar and a Formula One driver to swindle women out of cash has died.

Elizabeth Ballard, 69, first met the charming Jonathan Kern, who introduced himself to her as Jonathan Palmer, in 1994, while he was on a supposed business trip in Miami.

Ballard was dining alone at an outdoor cafe in South Beach when Kern, a British national, arrived in a forest green Jaguar and approached her.

Kern wooed her with his British accent, designer clothes, and promised her ski trips to the Alps, and about three weeks moved into her home in Milford, Connecticut.

When Ballard questioned why he wanted to settle down with her, and not date a supermodel, she claimed he said he was “tired” of the jet-setting lifestyle.

But during their six-week whirlwind romance, Kern drained Ballard’s bank accounts of $250 a day, without her knowledge, and emptied her savings account.

Kern convinced Ballard to rent a cell phone and used it to make calls under false pretenses.

“He told me he was staying in the US for me,” Ballard said.

“He didn’t have personal credit cards because he wasn’t planning to stay long, so I let him use mine.”

And after Kern had got his hands on $15,000, he upped and left without a trace, leaving Ballard heartbroken, broke, and searching for answers.

“I remember coming home one day and everything was gone, his cars, his suitcases,” Ballard, a retired clinical monitor from Chapin, South Carolina, said.

“I called him, and he just laughed it off.”

WEB OF DECEPTION

After checking her phone bill, she discovered calls to unfamiliar numbers.

One led her to Kern’s supposed cousin in Los Angeles; another connected her to his mother in England.

“She told me, ‘Jonathan’s ruined my life too,’” Ballard recalled.

“I couldn’t afford rent or even my car payments. I had to borrow money from my aunt just to get by.”

On top of that, an $8,000 check Kern had given her from an Italian bank bounced nearly a year later, leaving her responsible for the amount.

Ballard was forced to file for bankruptcy on her 40th birthday.

Determined to uncover the truth, Ballard began piecing together Kern’s real identity.

A call to the real Jonathan Palmer’s office confirmed what she feared.

Kern had been impersonating the famed race car driver across Europe and the US, defrauding victims with similar schemes.

Ballard worked with US Federal Marshals to identify Kern using evidence like photos of him with his sports car.

They revealed his true identity, a career conman with an extensive history of fraud.

Aside from Jonathan Palmer, Kern also impersonated music icons like Mick Jagger and Kid Rock over the years, according to reports.

‘SWEETHEART SWINDLER’

While she filed charges in Milford, including felony larceny, second-degree forgery, and criminal impersonation, Kern fled the jurisdiction before authorities could apprehend him.

Despite an active warrant for his arrest in the US, Kern avoided prosecution abroad, where extradition challenges complicated efforts to bring him to justice.

Authorities issued warrants for his arrest in multiple jurisdictions as he grew increasingly known for impersonating Jonathan Palmer, the famed race driver.

Ballard’s case gained national attention when it was featured on Unsolved Mysteries in 1996.

In the episode, Kern was referred to as a “Sweetheart Swindler” before the label took off in association with his name.

Ballard was then contacted by other victims, she said.

Determined to get justice, she wrote a self-published book about the ordeal, I Fell in Love with a Con Man, and she spread the word about Kern on the Facebook group, Conned but Not Conquered.

KERN JAILED

In 1998, she testified against him in a Paris court case involving another woman he had conned, helping lead him to conviction and jail time.

Kern was sentenced to three years in prison, serving only 17 months.

But Kern managed to avoid significant jail time due to jurisdictional challenges, as many of his crimes occurred across multiple states and countries.

“It took me ten years to get back on my feet,” Ballard admitted, saying, “My self-confidence was gone.”

Despite rebuilding her career and life, she continued to hear from other victims over the years.

“I wanted to forget about it, but every time I tried to move on, someone else would reach out with their story,” she added.

Ballard heard Kern had died on March 12 in Lunay, France, after suffering strokes and a heart attack.

She found out from one of her friends on Facebook.

Marilisa Anania, a detective on the Millford police department, which still has an active warrant for Kern, wrote in an email to Ballard, “I am sorry we were unable to ever serve the warrant, but your dedication to your case has helped many others in similar situations,” according to the Hartford Courant,

SEARCHING FOR JUSTICE’

Now, after Kern’s death at the age of 71, Ballard feels a sense of closure more than 30 years since she first heard his name.

Kern’s death marked the end of a decades-long ordeal for Ballard.

And for Billard, she’s found true love with her husband, Stephen 70, a retired US Air Force veteran.

Reflecting on her experience, Ballard said she “wanted to be a good example” for her adult son, Daniel, noting, “If something like this ever happened to him, I wanted him to hold his head high.”

“I’m feeling tremendous relief that this journey is over,” she added.

The allegations were put to Kern a number of times over the years, according to reports.

The New Haven Register reached out to him in 2018, through his UK company, and he wrote back, “I think Ms. Grzeszczyk [Ballard’s maiden name] really needs to get a life.

“Her accusations are exaggerated and fictitious and my family, colleagues and I are fed up to the back teeth of this attention seeker.”

Kern once posted a video of himself on YouTube, where he broadly describes his exploits around the globe, “pretending to be a famous rock star or racing driver,” according to the New Haven Register.

In a 1999 jailhouse interview with the Guardian, Kern admitted he had blagged a car from Lotus, taken it to the Belgian Grand Prix, and then said it had been stolen.

“I ended up paying a very heavy price for what had started out as nothing more than a bit of fun,” he told the outlet.