Woman, 84, in Netflix's Con Mum likely to get more charges, amount of suspected losses involved rises to S$500,000

SINGAPORE: An 84-year-old woman who was featured in a Netflix documentary for allegedly deceiving her own son and leaving him in debt is likely to face more charges in Singapore.

Dionne Marie Hanna, known to Netflix viewers as the woman in Con Mum, was charged earlier this month with five counts of fraud by false representation.

The total amount of losses believed to be involved in her case is now about S$500,000 (US$380,000), the prosecution said. This is more than double the S$200,000 previously stated by the police.

The British woman, who did not have a lawyer and was remanded, appeared in court on Thursday (Apr 17) via video-link. She was seated in a wheelchair and spoke softly, such that the judge had to ask her to repeat herself at times.

The prosecution informed the court that Hanna no longer needed to be in remand for investigations, but that investigation officers needed more time to prepare the extra charges.

Hanna was offered bail at S$50,000. However, when asked if she had a bailor, she said: "I don't have anybody to bail me out."

She thus remains in remand. Her next court appearance on May 16 is for a pre-trial conference that the prosecution requested so that the case could be "closely monitored".

Hanna has not indicated if she is pleading guilty or claiming trial.

THE CHARGES

Hanna was arrested in Singapore days after the premiere of the 90-minute Con Mum, which tells the story of how she reconnected with her biological son, who is a chef, in his adulthood and then tricked him and left him in debt.

There were also other victims she allegedly scammed and they all realised that they had been cheated after Hanna's appearance in the documentary, the authorities said.

She allegedly cheated her victims through promises of investment opportunities and inheritance entitlements.

Of her five charges, two stated that Hanna deceived a man named Paiman Supangat in France. 

Between Mar 3 and Mar 5, she is said to have told him that he needed to pay legal fees to open a bank account and for her to increase the contribution amount to him.

She is also accused of deceiving Mr Paiman into thinking that she intended to repay him the money that she wanted to borrow from him to fund her personal shopping expenses. She had no intention of returning the money, the charge stated. 

In Singapore, sometime between Feb 17 and Mar 10, Hanna claimed that she was from the Brunei royal family, that she was terminally ill with cancer, and that she wanted to distribute her wealth to Mr Paiman and his son.

Her purported health condition was allegedly used to cheat another victim in Singapore, Mr Mohamed Syafiq Paiman. She allegedly expressed her desire to distribute her wealth to him on Mar 10 this year.  

Hanna is suspected of deceiving a third victim, Mr Mohamed Ariffin Mohamed Kawaja Kamaludin, at 10 Scotts Road, which is the address of Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore, from Feb 13 to Feb 14.

She allegedly committed fraud by making him believe that she was terminally ill with cancer and expressing her intention to donate S$3 million to Masjid Khalid, a mosque in Joo Chiat, and S$2 million to Mawar Community Services, a registered society to help ex-offenders.

Court documents did not state the value of losses suffered by the alleged victims.

If convicted of fraud by false representation, an offender may be jailed for up to 20 years or fined, or both.