Woman admits making thousands from surrogacy fraud

By IAN HERBERT

A woman yesterday admitted making thousands of pounds from a surrogacy fraud in which she agreed to sell her unborn child over the internet to five different couples at the same time.

At least three of the five couples were paying Moira Greenslade £500 a month after she advertised her child on an American website.

Greenslade, 33, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, faces up to 10 years in jail after pleading guilty to three charges of obtaining money by deception and three offences under the Adoption Act.

Yasmin Pitter, prosecuting at Bingley Magistrates Court, told how Greenslade had signed agreements in which the couples offered her between £5,000 and £9,000 after advertising her services on the Surromomsonline site in January last year. She spent the money on her six-year-old son and family holidays.

Greenslade attracted the attention of Mark and Michelle Johnson, from Scotland, who were desperate to have a child after suffering 13 miscarriages and having eight failed attempts at IVF. They agreed to pay monthly expenses of between £500 and £5,000 pounds - £9,000 in total - once the birth certificate was handed over.

In February last year, Mr Johnson handed over two sperm samples to Greenslade, who twice went into her room and said she had inseminated herself.

A month later, she told the Johnsons that her period was two weeks late so the couple paid £40 for two pregnancy testing kits. Greenslade soon emailed the couple to say she was pregnant by another man but the Johnsons' hopes were revived in May when they attended Greenslade's 12-week scan and she told pre-natal clinic staff that the couple were the baby's intended parents. But Greenslade wanted more money.

On August 3 she placed another advertisement on Surromomsonline and attracted the Robinson-Hudsons from Wrexham (who promised £500 a month plus £5,000 for the baby) and the Rashleys from Hampshire (who offered £8,000 in total).

The husbands of both couples agreed to claim that the baby was biologically theirs - a lie - to ease the adoption process. Neither knew that Greenslade had entered into surrogacy arrangements with anyone else. She also placed a third website advertisement in October.

She was contacted by a further two families who have never been traced, though it is thought no money exchanged hands.

On November 24, the Johnsons received a letter from Greenslade cancelling the arrangement and saying she was putting the child up for adoption.

The following day she e-mailed the Robinson-Hudsons saying she was cancelling their agreement because she feared her child "would go into care."

The couple contacted police in Wrexham, who carried out a search of Greenslade's home and gathered evidence from emails.

Greenslade eventually gave birth on December 11 at the Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton but was arrested in her bed before she could hand over her baby to the Rashleys. The child was taken into care and later transferred to the authority of Bradford social services. A DNA test proved that none of the three men involved was the father of the baby.

UK surrogacy law dictates there can be no payment beyond "reasonable expenses" for the service. Greenslade admitted three charges of obtaining property deception and a further two charges of advertising that she was to be a parent of a child she wished to be adopted and a further charge of arranging an adoption when she was not an adoption agency.

She was granted conditional bail and her case was committed to crown court for sentencing.

Outside court, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Hopwood said: "The reaction of the couples was very shocked when we told them. They are, of course, victims themselves as they were people who were desperate to adopt children. This was an exploitation of these people's expectations."

- INDEPENDENT