A retired British pensioner has described how a romance scam in Thailand drained his savings and left him with nothing.

Simon Charles Hill, 68, a former UN flight operator from Luton, moved to Bangkok 11 years ago, where he had been living comfortably on his UK state pension.

But following the breakdown of his marriage to his Thai wife, the British expat found himself isolated and alone — a vulnerability that online fraudsters soon exploited by pretending to be a devoted American woman named Emily Smith.

The fake profile, illustrated with photographs of a woman posing in sportswear, told Mr Hill she was due to receive a $3million (£2million) inheritance.

There was one catch, she claimed: fees had to be paid before the fortune could be released — payments Mr Hill says he agreed to make.

Having apparently believed the story, Mr Hill started transferring his pension – around £500 a month – as soon as it reached his bank account. He then drained his own savings before running out of cash.

Months after the scam began, Mr Hill was kicked out of his apartment having found he was no longer able to pay his rent. 

He said he was also unable to buy food and was eventually found sleeping in a hotel lobby by concerned locals.

It is suspected that the scammers used artificial intelligence to create the image of the woman Mr Hill thought he was speaking to, or an identity was used falsely.

A local charity, the Bangkok Community Help Foundation (BCHF), helped Mr Hill – who had overstayed his visa, and was therefore in the country illegally – avoid spending weeks in prison and paid for his flight back to the UK, where he is now recovering.

Recounting how the con began, Mr Hill said: ‘I took to talking with a lady on social media. There was a girl called Emily Smith.

‘She reached out to me on Facebook. And her texts were very warm and inviting, and she sounded like a three-dimensional kind of girl, although I didn’t know whether she existed or not.’

He continued: ‘She introduced me to her lawyer, who was disposing of her property and assets, a total of three million US dollars to be paid directly into my bank account.

‘The sale of the house and the transfer of the funds to my account incurred a fee. And it was assured to me that I would receive the bank transfer once I had paid these fees.

‘I was able to sustain myself for a while, but it wasn’t going to last. And that’s when it dawned on me that I was actually homeless.’

Mr Hill told the Daily Mail he made seven or eight transfers, over a period of just under five months. 

The desperate pensioner eventually spent several nights sleeping in the lobby of a hotel in the Surawong area of Bangkok as his money ran out and he had nowhere else to go.

The BCHF said Mr Hill was ‘very frail and weak’ when he was found on July 9.

The Brit said he had been advised by the embassy that he could be sent to immigration detention.

But Friso Poldervaart, 34, a Dutch national and co-founder of BCHF, believed there was another option for the frail and elderly retiree.

Friso and the team decided to take Mr Hill to the organisation’s ‘Centre of Dreams’ shelter instead, where he was given time and space to recover.

Looking back on the day he first met Friso, Mr Hill said he believed he had reached rock bottom until he was rescued by the ‘knight in shining armour’.

The grateful expat said: ‘At the time, I thought there was nothing. I thought that I would be out on the street. And then you appeared, rather like a knight in shining armour, and said that I would be going with you, in fact.

‘I was not going to the immigration detention centre, as prescribed by the British Embassy, I believe, which I find astonishing, frankly.’

The pensioner said he was initially nervous when he arrived at the shelter, but the care he received soon made him feel safe.

‘When I first came here, I was a little bit pensive, thinking, okay, but my stay here has been memorable. I mean, for the right reasons.

‘To be honest with you, the care and warmth I’ve been shown here has been a lesson to me. Ever since I began staying here, I knew I was safe.’

Speaking to others at the centre who had experienced homelessness, Mr Hill said he had feared ending up on the streets himself.

He said: ‘The conditions on the street are absolutely horrendous. I was extremely worried I was going to end up there, but it never happened, thank God.

‘It would be the care and the friendship that I’ve received from the centre and from its staff, as well as you, which have been pretty much unforgettable, and has always helped me to sleep well at night, or sleep reasonably well.’

Mr Hill stayed at the Centre of Dreams as the organisation worked for nearly two months to repatriate him to the UK.

They organised fundraising and made the logistical arrangements to ensure he could finally return to his home country.

Mr Hill is now safely back in the UK, where he is staying in a homeless shelter in London while waiting to enter assisted living.

However, Friso said the money he lost is unlikely to ever be recovered.

The Dutch philanthropist said: ‘He told me, “Finally, I had someone who cared for me.” He admitted that he sometimes suspected he was being scammed, but he did not want to believe it because the relationship made him feel cared for in a way he had not experienced for many years.

‘He lost […] essentially his entire pension. Every month when his pension arrived, he would send almost all of it to the scammer. He then could not pay his rent, electricity or buy food, and was eventually evicted from his condo.’

Friso added that romance scammers often target elderly and vulnerable people who have nobody, building an emotional attachment before draining their life savings.

The suspects were reportedly traced to Nigeria, while Mr Hill’s money had been sent to a Thai mule account – bank accounts used by criminals to collect or launder money obtained through illegal activities such as fraud, scams, and other cybercrimes.

Friso said: ‘We reported the scam to the Yan Nawa District Police. The police took the report and the information about the Thai mule account was passed to the bank, but there was no wider investigation that we are aware of.

‘Unfortunately, I don’t have much hope that Mr Hill will get his money back.’

Acting Police Major Loetchai Phiwlongchai, an investigation officer at Yannawa Police Station, said Mr Hill had filed an official report against the scammers in July.

He said: ‘The complainant has officially filed a report with police, and we have received and recorded the complaint as evidence. The matter will now be handled in accordance with the complainant’s legal rights.’

A well-off steakhouse manager shifted nervously as he stood before a judge, facing accusations that he killed his mother inside a $2.1 million Miami apartment.

Stefano Cremasco Cicero, 36, has been charged with second-degree murder after authorities alleged he fatally stabbed his mother early Friday morning in his 47th-floor residence at a luxury high-rise in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.

Video from Saturday’s bond court hearing showed Cremasco Cicero appearing before a Miami-Dade County judge dressed in a green anti-suicide smock.

With a faint frown on his face, the accused man rocked back and forth, his handcuffed wrists crossed, as the judge ordered him held without bail.

The court was also told that Cremasco Cicero had an active detainer from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.

Cremasco Cicero’s mother had been staying at his apartment while she was visiting from Mexico, WPLG reported.

He is due back in court on Tuesday at 9am for his pre-trial detention hearing. 

Cremasco Cicero has not yet entered a plea, but when he was taken into custody told police, ‘I was defending myself.’

Miami Police were called to the Solitair Brickell apartment building around 5am Friday for an ‘unknown request,’ according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Miami Herald. 

When officers arrived at the 50-story luxury high-rise, they found Cremasco Cicero in the lobby with blood on his hands, clothing and shoes, the report stated. 

Cremasco Cicero alleged he acted in self-defense before leading officers to his apartment on the 47th floor, the affidavit detailed.

After unlocking the door, officers found an unnamed woman suffering from stab wounds on the floor. The victim, identified as Cremasco Cicero’s mother, was pronounced dead at 5.08am, police said. 

A food delivery driver told cops she was dropping off an order to the apartment when Cremasco Cicero asked her to call 911 as she entered through the lobby door, per the affidavit.

According to police, he called police himself before handing the phone to the woman. As she spoke to the dispatcher, the delivery driver noticed blood on him. 

The witness later gave the phone to officers after Cremasco Cicero refused to take it back from her, the report stated.

After obtaining a warrant to search his residence, police discovered several silver kitchen knives with blood on them, as well as two bloodstained white shirts, a broken wine bottle and broken glass, the sworn statement read. 

Surveillance footage captured Cremasco Cicero entering an elevator with his mother and exiting the building together, police stated. Key fob records also confirmed that information. 

The mother and son returned to the apartment building around 10.30pm. They were alone in the elevator together, according to the affidavit. 

At approximately 4.25am, Cremasco Cicero was spotted entering the elevator donning a white shirt, white shoes, and khaki pants, all of which appeared to have blood on them. He was also holding a knife, the footage showed, police said. 

He then exited the elevator, dropped the knife, and then picked it up before entering another elevator and heading upstairs, officials stated. 

Cremasco Cicero was then seen entering an elevator again, but this time he was wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt. He then exited the building and walked outside using his phone, according to the affidavit. 

The man returned around 4.40am and sat on the couch in the lobby before interacting with the delivery driver, the report said. 

He was arrested and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and has been charged with second-degree murder, according to jail records reviewed by the Daily Mail. 

Cremasco Cicero was born in Mexico but is of Argentine descent, the Miami Herald reported. He is in the US on an investor visa. 

He is the operating manager of the 1986 Steak House in Coconut Grove. The restaurant opened its doors in May and is known as an upscale dining experience that delivers an ‘inviting space where family, friendship, and community come together around the fire,’ according to the business’s website.

Cremasco Cicero’s social media accounts depict him as a man with expensive taste, as he posed in a Hermes belt and a nice suit in one snap. 

He and his wife got engaged in October 2023 and had a lavish wedding in Lake Como, Italy, in June 2025, according to online posts. 

The couple have lived in the Solitar Brickell apartment building since July 2024.

Officers contacted his wife after learning the pair are the only two people named on the apartment lease.

His wife said she was in France for a wedding at the time of the killing, and that her mother-in-law was in town from Mexico and staying with her son. 

She also noted that Cremasco Cicero and his mother did not have a close relationship after she and his father got divorced, police said. 

Cremasco Cicero’s wife said she was not aware of any mental illnesses involving her husband but noted he has been stressed over the opening of the new restaurant, the report stated.