Woman homeless after Irish lover steals her heart and €90,000

IF A ginger-haired Irishman with a tattoo of Jesus Christ across his chest asks you for money — beware, police have warned.

A lovestruck woman handed over €90,000 to the man, who asked her to marry him only four months after they met in a pub, British police said yesterday.

The woman, who doesn’t want to be identified, has been left homeless and penniless after giving her savings to the man, who called himself John Chapman.

Police have launched a nationwide hunt for the Irishman, who has curly ginger hair and a tattoo of Jesus Christ across his chest.

The woman said: “Seven months ago I was a homeowner with no mortgage and no debts. Now I have lived in three hostels and refuges across the country. I have had all my belongings taken away from me. I have been left with nothing and had my life turned upside-down by a man I thought I could trust.”

The man convinced his fiancée to sell her house in Cheshire so they could set up home together. He told the woman he had found a house in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, but refused to let her see it.

He told her he needed €90,000 for a deposit and sent the woman to her bank accompanied by two of his “business associates.” She handed the money to him at a service station. He left and the woman has not seen or heard from him since.

She later discovered he had also run up a large bill on her debit card to pay for a number of hotels the couple had stayed in during their four-month romance.

A police spokeswoman said: “She put her trust in a man who she thought she would spend the rest of her life with and ended up having her life ruined.”