Sacher Barker, (right), then 42, was wooed by Richard Winter over $1,950 bottles of wine. Photo / Supplied
Emerging from an emotionally draining divorce, glamorous former air hostess Sacher Barker thought she would never find happiness again. But then, on a night out with mutual friends, she met Richard Winter.
He seemed the perfect man: kind, well educated and, by strange coincidence, he liked the same things as her. He also appeared to be fabulously wealthy, soon whisking Sacher off on exotic trips, flying first-class to luxury holidays in Barbados, the Cayman Islands and the Maldives.
They drank £1,000 (NZ$1,956) bottles of wine and enjoyed regular shopping trips to Harrods to buy Rolex watches, designer handbags and expensive shoes, reports Daily Mail.
They became engaged, were set to exchange contracts on a £1.6 million (NZ$3.12m) family home in West Sussex – and, because Sacher was already 42 at the time, embarked on the first of five gruelling rounds of IVF in a bid to start a family.
But her fairytale life turned to dust after Winter went out for a coffee one day in 2015, never to return. Today Sacher's money, home, jewellery, car and dignity are all gone after Winter was exposed as a fraudster who had conned her out of £400,000 (NZ$$782,000).
Last week, a High Court judge awarded her a sum just over that amount in a civil fraud case she brought against Winter. However, Sacher, now 48, says the emotional price has been far greater.
Speaking about her ordeal for the first time, she reveals that Winter, the 44-year-old son of wealthy businessman and Tory party donor John Winter, spun a web of lies from the beginning, telling Sacher he owned property, a gold bullion account, a £100,000 (NZ$195,000) wine collection and a share of a boat in Monaco, and received £2 million (NZ$3.9m) a year in dividends. Most cruelly, he told her he had prostate cancer.
"I thought I'd found my soulmate," she says.
"We laughed every day and I loved him deeply. Little did I know I was sleeping next to a monster."
Sitting in the cramped one-bedroom flat she now rents in West London, Sacher admits she used to dismiss women like her. "I've read this story before and thought, 'Silly woman. It would never happen to me.' But Richard Winter is a silver-tongued conman.
"Even now I have to pinch myself. I look back now and think, 'Was I that gullible?' Yes, but in my defence I believe he groomed me. It didn't cross my mind that he was constantly scheming against me. I'm not a stupid girl, but I feel absolutely stupid and utterly betrayed."
Sacher says she was vulnerable when she met Winter in 2011. Her five-year marriage had ended in divorce and her confidence was low. Winter told her he was separated from the mother of his two children. In retrospect, Sacher now realises the warning signs were there from the beginning.
"We were in each other's pockets," she says. "He mirrored everything I liked. Most men hate beach holidays, but Richard loved lying in the sun reading a book. We had the same taste in food and music. He'd even like to watch romcoms. At the time I thought, 'Wow! This is fabulous.' On reflection, he was making himself perfect. He lulled me into a false sense of security."
Winter indicated he came from a wealthy background and was the beneficiary of two trust funds. He also said he had sold a business for £5 million (NZ$9.7m).
"He threw his money around like confetti," Sacher says. In their first year they went on a series of luxury holidays and Sacher recalls a lunch at The Savoy Hotel in London during which Winter ordered a £1,000 bottle of red wine, saying: "This is how it is for me. Relax, enjoy it."
"It was like a whirlwind, my feet didn't touch the ground," she says. "I now see it was part of his plotting so when he asked to borrow money I didn't see any risk."
Keen to impress, Richard took her on regular shopping trips and showered her with expensive gifts from Harrods – where staff even knew him by name. Presents included two Rolex watches costing tens of thousands of pounds. One had the inscription: "Thanks for making me smile again."
The mask began to slip in May 2012 when Winter claimed his family's assets had been frozen and his own money was tied up because of his divorce proceedings.
Sacher had a nest egg of £550,000 from her own divorce. She says: "We agreed I would loan Richard the money until his was all unfrozen. He'd been so good to me and I thought it was right to give and take. I gave him access to my accounts because effectively it was his money." They continued to live a life that most people can only dream about, but later on that year Sacher grew concerned.
Perhaps sensing he was on borrowed time, Winter unleashed his most unforgivable tactic yet: telling Sacher he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Deeply concerned, Sacher paid for therapy sessions for him, even sitting in on one: "Richard would sob, but they were just crocodile tears. Then it all stopped. He said he was feeling better, that it was the slowest-growing cancer and would take a long time to have an impact. I accepted that."
Soon afterwards, he proposed. He took her to Cartier to try on three engagement rings he had picked out especially. "Again, they knew his name in the shop and had flown one of the rings in from France," she says.
She chose an oval diamond ring costing more than £100,000. But it never materialised – and neither did the wedding. Meanwhile, the spending continued, Sacher using some of her nest egg herself. In January 2013, Winter booked first-class tickets to Dubai.
"I know it sounds stupid and gullible, but I loved and trusted him. Also, after his diagnosis, I couldn't put pressure on him." He would later admit to Sacher that he had lied about his cancer diagnosis.
Even when Sacher's money ran out later that year, she believed everything would turn out for the best. She sold her Range Rover for £40,000 (NZ$78,000) and pawned jewellery to raise funds so that they could rent a cottage in West Wittering, West Sussex.
When Winter's divorce came through a year later, she asked about repayment.
"Richard said his father wouldn't release the assets. I started thinking, 'Here's a new excuse.'"
He reassured her by saying his main concern was for her to feel her money was secure and had his lawyers draw up a loan agreement. And they were as happy as ever. Winter started looking at family homes to buy when his funds became available.
He settled on a four-bedroom house on the market for £1.6 million and a bungalow nearby for Sacher's parents.
"He took builders around and had grand plans for renovations," Sacher says. In February 2015, on the day they were due to exchange, they both woke up excited about their future. But for Sacher the feeling would be fleeting.
She recalls: "Richard left me hoovering and nipped into town for a coffee. He never came back."
It was about two weeks before she received a call from him. "He had a story and said he'd had to hand in his phone." He promised he would get Sacher's money back and she was so in thrall to him that their relationship continued.
She explains: "I was hanging on to any word or hope that he was genuine. He had my financial future in his power."
Winter visited regularly over the next few months, even spending Father's Day with Sacher's parents. He promised them he would repay Sacher, sending them a bouquet of roses with a note to say the same.
On three occasions he said he would transfer the money, but it never happened. Forced to put the house sale on hold, Sacher then received a letter to say their rent was £10,000 (NZ$19,500) in arrears.
She says: "I had 24 hours to move out. I was put on the drive with my things in bin bags. I had no money, was in tens of thousands of pounds of debt, and had a dog to care for. I had to sleep on my parents' sofa."
The last time Sacher saw Winter was just before Christmas 2015.
The following month, a friend called her to say that Winter had written on Facebook that he had been in a relationship with another woman since the previous September.
Sacher says: "The shock was so huge. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat. I could not accept that someone I loved, cared for and trusted could do that to me, or that I was a victim of fraud. I believe it was a sick game to him." Desperate, she sued him in the civil courts for fraud.
In his judgment, His Honour Judge Rawlings said Winter's conduct appeared to have been "driven principally by his addiction to spending money… rather than any intention to inflict distress" upon Sacher. She, however, maintains that Winter knew exactly what he was doing. "Richard knows the game he played," she says. "He has never said sorry."
Winter, who is now married and works as a dog-walker, of course sees things rather differently – but declined to comment.
Although she won the case, the judge also suggested Sacher had been "the author of her own misfortune" – a statement that clearly stings.
She says: "When you're in what you believe to be a loving relationship and the other person turns out to be a liar and a fraudster, how can you be even partly responsible for their behaviour?"
After a two-and-a-half-year fight that cost £100,000 in legal fees, Sacher is now concentrating on getting her life back on track, but says the emotional and financial scars will never heal.
"His life has moved on unscathed, but I will always suffer the effects. He hasn't just taken my money, he's left me financially and emotionally in the gutter.
"Now he could do the right thing and pay me back my money. I can't forgive and I will never forget."
Plus, Beauden Barrett's new side hustle.