A Newry woman has warned people to be on the lookout for an alleged serial fraudster after he "infiltrated" her life and conned her out of thousands of pounds by posing as a film industry worker.
Anna (who did not wish for us to publish her real name), said she had been left feeling "violated" by the criminal, who has reportedly been plying his sinister trade for many years and is one of the most wanted conmen in the UK.
In January, when the businesswoman received an email enquiring about letting one of the apartments she rents out - the email claimed to be from someone at Universal Studios, the first of many such falsehoods.
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The email arrived on January 15 and was signed off by someone using the name "Joel McShane", who claimed to work for Universal Studios, looking after their corporate bookings.
He wanted to know whether the woman would be able to put an employee up, as the person would be working at Titanic Studios on a production called 'Paddington in Peru', another lie.
"Normally the way my business works, someone books and they pay up front but if you're dealing with corporate it's slightly different," the woman explained.
"It wouldn't be unusual for corporate bookers to ring up and say they need a place for so long and they may want to extend it at some point and you would have to raise an invoice and that, so it's not unusual for a corporate booker to not pay up front initially.
"So from my point of view, for someone to ring you in January to get five and a half weeks, you're thinking that's brilliant, that will really get me through to the start of spring."
"Joel" said that the man staying at Anna's apartments was called Scott Gausden and "Scott" arrived later that week on Thursday January 19.
He had come a day early and Anna's son Mark (not his real name) was with her when she arrived at the apartment on the Thursday to carry out some minor maintenance work.
When they went into the apartment and met "Scott", he seemed charming and upon finding out Mark's daughter was celebrating a birthday soon, he offered to arrange a tour of the 'Paddington in Peru' production for the family.
Two weeks passed and by the end of January, payment had still not arrived from "Scott's" employers for his stay in the apartments.
However, Anna had been sent an email from them apologising, saying that there had been a delay with the transfer and that they were in the process of suing their payments provider and would she mind using a separate system instead.
In the meantime, she had also received an email saying that the family was invited for the studio tour, with a mocked up letter from Paddington Bear promising "tea and marmalade" for the whole family when they got there.
The family's excitement was short-lived, as on February 2, "Scott" showed up at Anna's place of work, something she says concerned her as she likes to keep her work and apartments services separate, saying the studio tour had been cancelled.
He was however promising that his employers were willing to pay to fly the family to London for a different studio experience, in order to thank Anna for being a 'supplier' to the studio through her apartments.
From here, "Scott's" lies continued to spiral - with no money in sight for his apartment stay by February 17, he began to branch out.
He claimed he had a husband, "Chris", who was working with police in England on the Nicola Bully case.
Soon, Anna received a text from "Chris", apologising that he was unable to visit "Scott" as he was so busy, but advising that he was worried about "Scott's" mental health as he had to travel a lot alone for work.
He asked Anna would she mind taking "Scott" to Boots and buying him an aftershave for Valentine's Day as a way of picking up his spirits and said that he would reimburse her for that.
Despite her misgivings over being so personally involved with someone who was a tenant, Anna agreed out of a desire to do "Scott" a kindness.
All the while, "Scott's" lies were continuing to pile up - he told Anna he had reached out to industry colleagues to recommend her apartments as a great location.
Anna had received emails purporting to be from ITV, for hosting contestants filming The Chase in Ireland and from TG4 asking could they use an empty unit she had for filming an interview.
On February 17, with no sign of payment for the apartment, "Scott's husband Chris" texted Anna to say he had been hit on the head while carrying out a drugs raid.
Again this was all part of "Scott's" tangled web of deception.
It was on Monday February 20 that "Scott" told the lie that would expose him within a few days, saying to Anna that he had woken with a sore head and leg.
She took him at his word and recommended he visit a local health centre in Newry.
Three days later, "Scott" messaged Anna to say he had been to a health centre in the city, where doctors had informed him that he had suffered a heart attack at some point in the past year.
"That particular morning I came in and I said I don't know what's going on, but I need to find out," Anna said.
She asked "Scott" had they performed an ECG at the health centre as she knew where the health centre was and what facilities they would have.
He replied that they had and she knew instantly that she had finally caught him in a clear lie and set about trying to reach "Joel McShane", the person she had talked to originally about Scott's booking, who claimed to work for Universal Studios.
"I phoned a woman in my work's office and had asked her to see could she get any contact with 'Joel' from Universal and she could get nothing ringing off the number I had been using to contact 'Scott' the whole time he had been staying with me," she said.
"So I had the phone that I had been contacting 'Joel' on from the start and just at that moment I pressed call on the number that I had first used to deal with 'Joel', which was a different number.... and 'Scott' answered.
"I said 'hello Joel', is that you?' and he put down the phone and I knew immediately.
"That was at 13:52pm and I rang the woman in my office and said 'he's a fraud'.
"I came off the phone and I honestly felt like I could die."
Anna said she felt like her world was falling apart, as despite having her suspicions about "Scott" due to the frequent drama surrounding him, it was something else to have it confirmed.
She was able to check CCTV images in the apartment that showed "Scott" receiving the call from her at 13.52pm, then leaving the building in a lift with two suitcases and a bag by 14.10pm.
Within a few hours, a friend was able to find information about "Scott" online and revealed that he was actually a serial fraudster named Matthew Attenborough.
He had featured on Crimestoppers' most wanted appeals and he had targeted victims elsewhere in the UK over the past 11 years or more.
Even more disturbingly, a new aspect of Matthew's deceptions came to light - he had been known to set up meetings with men through apps like Grindr and then rob from them.
That started to tally with stories Matthew had told Anna previously, about being out at around 2 or 3am at night "looking for cigarettes" and she fears he may have been targeting men while staying at her apartments.
She was able to confirm that the fraudster never brought men back to the building, but said she feared he may still have had a hold over some in the area.
"I feel there is something else going on behind the scenes here, I'm not au fait with these things but my gut feeling is that there is more to this than the apartment stuff," Anna said.
"A woman in my office was able to find details about Matthew Attenborough online and he's a serial fraudster and there were details saying he goes onto gay websites and engages with people there.
"Why has this man for so long got away with it?".
Anna has reported the fraud to the police and said it has cost her "a shocking sum of money", £5,500, that she would have been expecting for leasing out the apartment.
She said it was not the financial cost that weighed heavily on her mind, saying that he had been in business for 40 years and would be able to recover.
"I feel that my life has been infiltrated by something that I have no control of," she said.
"Nothing happened to me physically, but mentally and emotionally, it has absolutely wrecked me and I am a strong person.
"I just am questioning myself that I didn't see it in the person, even though at the same time, I was constantly checking.
"I just feel quite floored to be quite honest with you, I just think gosh, how did this happen to me?".
The PSNI confirmed it is looking into a fraud allegation and that its investigation was ongoing.
"Police are currently investigating a report of fraud received in February in Newry," a spokesperson said.
"Enquiries are ongoing."
Anna said she wanted to speak out to make the public aware of the fraudster, in the hope that she might prevent the same terrible fate befalling someone else.
"The scary part about is is, yes I am a strong person and I will get over this," she said.
"But if he does this on someone who is not as strong as me, this could be very detrimental to other people, you'd be worried about some losing their life.
"He did what he did around the town and you just feel like, how can you infiltrate society and the street with such an awful way of life?".
Anna said that if she could say just one thing to the man she knew as "Scott", but who she and other traumatised victims now know as Matthew, it would be this.
"How could you do this to me, when all I did was be kind to you?," she said.
"Kindness outweighs everything - if you see someone in distress in any way, manner or means and you can help them, why wouldn't you? - You might be there yourself some day.
"I just can't understand why someone would do that to me, because all I was was kind.
"That's the part I find most difficult, probably, that someone could so violate your life in an unsavoury way and all you're being is kind to the person."
Anna said she has since changed the locks and codes on the doors in her building and the last she saw of Matthew was of CCTV footage showing him making off from her building with his luggage in tow.
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