Scam Types dot Com

LONDON, England.

Greater London resident Helen Baker, 32, was arrested by Metropolitan police yesterday and was subsequently charged with conducting an elaborate ’sex for security’ scam in which she allegedly defrauded husband Steve Baker out of nearly £250,000 in cash, food, clothing and housing over the past 14 years.

It is alleged that she used periodic offers of sexual intercourse in order to acquire her ill-gotten gains.

Talking of Helen Baker, pictured above, Mark Wright of Greater London Police said,

“It’s the biggest scam of its kind I’ve ever seen, we’re talking coats, dishwashers, jewelry, sewing machines, holidays, bathroom cleansers, you name it, she got it.”

AFTER SEX

According to Wright, undercover agents spotted Baker’s husband handing her £35 in cash at approximately 4 p.m., just half an hour after the two of them had been heard having sex.

Baker then drove off in her car, returning home two hours later with five bags of food shopping.

“That’s when we made the arrest”

Wright said.

“After tracking her for years, we finally had proof that she was buying all those goods with dirty money.”

During the arrest, Metropolitan police officials entered the Bakers’ house and seized more than 150 items that Mrs. Baker had received from her husband over the last 14 years.

Their haul included a four-speed adjustable food processor, 12 pairs of earrings, a matching sofa and footrest, a collection of coloured rubbish bags, various cosmetics, perfumes and a portable dvd player.

DINING ROOM TABLE

In exchange for these items, Wright said Baker’s husband received sex an estimated 270 times - mostly in the master bedroom, but also in the lounge four times, twice in the garden shed and once over the edge of the dining room table.

In addition to the physical evidence collected by police, there were also considerable eyewitness accounts too.

More than 400 residents of Peckham, where the Bakers’ shared a plush 3 bedroom flat, have come forward to report seeing Helen and Steve together, and many added that they witnessed Mr. Baker regularly purchasing items for his wife.

“Sure, they’d come in here,”

said Mark Ball of Ball’s & Chains Hardware Stores Ltd. He later added,

“I couldn’t possibly comment on what they purchased though”.

THE £500 RING

Perhaps the most damaging statement came from Mr. Baker (pictured left) himself, who this morning confided in police, telling them that that while the couple were dating in 1991, Mrs. Baker - then known as Helen Marchant - demanded that he buy her a ring worth over £500 before she would let him have sex with her.

The first such sexual encounter took place some six months later during an all expenses paid trip to Paris which Helen Baker allegedly duped her future husband into paying for.

It was also in 1991, Mr. Baker said, that his wife quit her job in the local supermarket.

OTHER SOURCES OF INCOME

Mark Wright said,

“Clearly, after quitting her job, the accused then began receiving an undisclosed income from some other source - how else could she have afforded to give up work? It’s now fairly obvious that at this point she began supporting herself by providing certain services to Mr. Baker.”

Police sources say that Baker’s mother, Bernadette Marchant, a resident of the Peckham Old Person’s Refuge, is now also being sought for questioning in relation to this case.

Police suspect that Marchant may have acted as an accomplice, and agent provocateur, by introducing her daughter to the sex for security scam, after being guilty of the same ruse herself from 1946 to 1984, with a number of different gentlemen.

NO PROSECUTION

Despite the mounting wave of evidence against Baker, Wright believes it may still prove difficult to secure a conviction as,

“Helen was very careful to cover her bases. She even managed to con her husband into putting her name on all the bank accounts and credit cards.”

The Baker case is far more common than people may imagine according to criminal behaviour expert Jon Bishop, who said that there are “literally millions” of such cases in the UK at any time and that they very rarely end up in court.

IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME

Bishop also said,

“This type of scam isn’t anywhere near as uncommon as we’d all like to think. The woman finds herself in a situation where she simply isn’t employable, or has conflicting interests such as child rearing, cooking or shopping, or perhaps a hectic social life, that keep her from obtaining meaningful employment.

Therefore, she has to hatch a scheme to entrap a man, using her body as the bait. It’s quite scary, but the reality is that it happens every day in this country”.