A British woman who lost up to £1m in a series of romance frauds died in a road crash in Ghana while trying to recover her money, an inquest in Exeter has heard.
Janet Fordham, 69, a retired housekeeper from Devon, was cheated of her life savings and home over five years by fraudsters based in the UK, Germany, the US and Ghana. She travelled to Ghana after a man named Kofi promised to help retrieve her funds, but was killed when the car he was driving crashed.
The inquest heard that Fordham began using online dating sites in 2017 and was scammed by a man claiming to be a British army sergeant major in Syria, to whom she sent about £150,000. She later fell victim to a man posing as a diplomat. Despite warnings from family and police, she was deemed to have mental capacity and could not be stopped.
Fordham flew to Accra in October 2022 after Kofi, who claimed to be a doctor, said he could help. The relationship became romantic, and she agreed to marry him. On Valentine's Day 2023, he was driving her to meet a relative when the car flipped. Fordham, not wearing a seatbelt, suffered fatal head injuries.
Detective Sergeant Ben Smith said Fordham sent an estimated £800,000 to £1m to fraudsters, selling her home and land to live in a caravan. The coroner noted inconsistencies in the crash evidence but concluded she died from head injuries sustained in the collision.
