Conwoman who swindled £115k from victims guilty

Conwoman who swindled £115k from victims guilty

10 September 2025

AN American conwoman, who swindled more than £115,000 from four victims, was convicted of theft and fraud offences at Downpatrick Crown Court last week.

Marianne Smyth (57), who was extradited from the US, was found guilty on all counts by a jury that deliberated for just 20 minutes.

Smyth, of Spa Road, Ballynahinch, faced three charges of theft and three of committing fraud by abusing a position of trust, committed between March 20, 2008, and October 5, 2010.

The jury heard Smyth swindled a total of £115,750 from the four complainants.

They did not hear that Smyth had also faced two further charges of fraud and stealing £20,000 from a fifth victim, who has since died.

During the four-day trial the jury heard how Smyth took money from the complainants on the pretence of either using it to buy a house or to invest it into high interest accounts, only to keep the money for herself.

One of the victims was former Derry GAA star Dermot McNicholl, who said he and his wife handed over a £67,750 cheque for a house they would never see.

He said: “She came across as being very trustworthy, we put all our faith in her.”

Mr McNicholl, a member of Derry’s 1993 All-Ireland winning team, and his wife Ita told the court that initially they gave Smyth £5,000 as a deposit for a property in Belfast.

Smyth, the jury heard, told them she had “an even better deal” on a house in Newcastle, and that it was fortunate because it had sitting tenants and she owned the property next door.

Having been given the cheque for £67,750, the fraudster told them she could collect the rent for them.

To support her lies, Smyth concocted an “entirely fictitious” bill of sale and rental agreement, and even paid for several months’ rent from her own account.

Mrs McNicholl told the jury that after Smyth had fled across the Atlantic, they went to the house and found it was devoid of furniture.

Smyth had even had her pet dogs euthanised before she left the jurisdiction.

The McNicholls also recovered copies of the bogus documents still in Smyth’s bin.

Another victim, Shona Reid, lost £23,000. The jury heard how she and her husband considered Smyth a friend, socialised with her and allowed her daughter to babysit their children.

Having arranged an “equity release mortgage” for them, Smyth said she would invest the money in a high-interest account.

But in May 2009, when they asked for some of it back, Smyth told them “she would need more time”.

Then she claimed the money “had been paid into someone else’s account”, and finally told them “she was going to the States for eight days and would deal with it later”.

Mrs Reid told the jury they never heard from her again, and nor did they see any of their money.

The last two complainants, James and Imelda Savage, had written a £20,000 cheque to Smyth, who said she would invest it in a high-interest account.

Like Mrs Reid, they never saw or heard from her again.

Despite being warned the jury could properly draw an adverse inference from her silence, Smyth declined to enter the witness box to give evidence on her own behalf.

Following the convictions, defence KC Gary McHugh outlined how Smyth has been in custody since February last year, so had served the equivalent of a three-year sentence.

He suggested that, given Court of Appeal guidance on dealing with fraud cases, Smyth may be approaching “time-served”.

Mr McHugh revealed that regardless of the sentence imposed by the court, Smyth had received documentation from the Home Office telling her she is to be deported.

Smyth was remanded back into custody and will be sentenced on October 16.

Although the jury heard evidence relating to four local victims, Smyth’s criminality extends beyond these shores.

In 2019 she was convicted in California of grand theft by false pretence after defrauding a television producer Jonathan Walton of nearly $100,000.

Smyth had convinced him she was an Irish heiress engaged in a legal battle over a $30m inheritance.

It was later revealed that she had also posed as a psychologist, a court-appointed child custody investigator, a psychic, a cancer patient, a National Hockey League coach and, on one occasion, Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston.

Smyth served less than two years of a five-year prison sentence in California before being released early during the Covid pandemic.

In May 2024 a US federal magistrate ordered her extradition, describing her conduct as a “pattern of fraud, deceit and manipulation over many years”.

She was flown back to Belfast in July 2024.

According to material cited in the extradition filings, Smyth had persuaded five people in the UK to hand over around £135,000 for investments in non-existent high-interest accounts.