A surrogate mother who claimed she miscarried Osama bin Laden’s grandchild has been jailed for a fake pregnancies scam that took £15,000 from desperate couples.
Louise Pollard, 28, agreed to carry babies for two couples and pretended to inseminate herself before telling them she was pregnant on three occasions.
But Pollard then began “milking” the couples for thousands of pounds, claiming she needed money after suffering a car crash, was behind on her rent and had been forced to move house.
Within days of the couples demanding proof that Pollard was pregnant, the mother-of-two pretended she had suffered a miscarriage, leaving them “heartbroken”.
The scale of her deception was uncovered when a pregnancy confirmation letter she sent one of her victims was found to be a forgery.
Pollard gained notoriety in 2010 after agreeing to carry a child for Omar bin Laden – the son of Osama bin Laden – and his wife, but she miscarried that pregnancy.
She admitted three charges of fraud by false representation relating to the faked pregnancies in March 2012, May 2012 and November 2012.
Today Judge Graham Cottle jailed Pollard, who sobbed in the dock, for three years and four months for her “brutal and heartless” actions.SWNS
Sentencing her, he said the desperation of one couple – Josephine and Keith Barnett – and Pollard’s own “skills as fraudster” meant she was able to quickly earn their trust, before carrying out “one breathtaking deception after another”.
“It was no more than a tissue of lies that you told as you continued to take sums of money from them,” he said. “For you, that was all that this was about. After they had parted with over £10,000 in your deception, they contacted the police.
“By that time, you had found further victims. [Winston and Debra Kaba], desperate for a child to be a brother or sister for their son. They too were completely taken into your web of deception, parting with money, being fobbed off with one lie after another until they ended up heartbroken and deprived of over £5,000.”
Judge Cottle said Pollard’s actions were “deliberate, sustained, callous acts” that had left both families devastated.
“This is not a case about financial loss, it is a case of two desperate couples being completely taken in by you and your lies,” he said.
“Of course they lost money but they have lost a great deal more than that, they have ended up heartbroken.”
In a statement, Mrs Barnett said she was receiving medication and treatment for depression following her and her husband’s ordeal.
Mr Kaba, in another victim impact statement, said the couple had been desperate to provide a brother or sister for their son, and it was “incomprehensible to them that someone would lie and be so cruel”.
