A British woman accused of duping her own son to fund her champagne-sipping lifestyle has been charged with fraud in Singapore after gaining notoriety in the Netflix documentary Con Mum.
Dionne Marie Hanna, 84, faces five counts of fraud involving three men in Singapore and France.
She appeared before a district court on Saturday via video link, according to local media reports.
Her alleged victims claim she sought their sympathy by saying she was terminally ill and needed the money for legal fees and to open new bank accounts. She allegedly assured the men that she would reimburse them through inheritance, claiming to be a member of the Brunei royal family.
In exchange for the money, she also promised to donate millions of dollars to a mosque and a Muslim non-profit organisation in Singapore, a court heard.
The charges reportedly come after her alleged victims watched ‘Con Mum’ on Netflix, which told the story of Hanna’s reunion with her son Graham Hornigold.
Hanna got in touch with Mr Hornigold, a London-based pastry chef back in 2020, claiming to be his long-lost mother.
DNA tests later proved she was Mr Hornigold’s mother. However, he says after she got in touch, she scammed him out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
She is said to have portrayed herself as a wealthy, illegitimate daughter of the Sultan of Brunei, initially lavishing her son and his then-partner with extravagant gifts.
However, over time, she allegedly abandoned them, leaving him and his friends to bear the brunt of her ever-increasing bills. Mr Hornigold, in the film, revealed that he lost £300,000 during this period, while she vanished.
It is unclear how much money her alleged victims have lost, but Singapore police said preliminary investigations suggest it could amount to more than S$200,000 or £115,400.
Since the airing of the Netflix show, police said they had received several complaints from alleged victims.
If convicted of fraud, Ms Hanna faces up to 20 years in jail and a fine.
