Sue Hall (left) was conned by comedian David Cook

by Alan Watkins

A woman who lost her life savings to a conman is trying to come to grips with the £1 compensation package she has been awarded by a court.

Sue Hall gave more than £74,000 to Gravesend comedian David Cook after meeting him through a dating website.

What she didn't know was that 65-year-old Cook was a conman.

Speaking for the first time since a judge at Maidstone Crown Court said there was no more the justice system could do for her, Ms Hall said the bills she faced probably topped £80,000.

She now faces having to sell her home to repay the money she loaned Cook, of Winchester Crescent, Gravesend.

She said: "I feel completely let down by the judicial system. Everyone is telling me I have to move on, but it is hard, it is so hard."

Ms Hall, 63, began lending Cook cash after she discovered he knew her late father, Les Hall, a local impresario in the north Kent area.

"i feel completely let down by the judicial system…” – victim sue hall

Cook was jailed for two years several months ago for defrauding Ms Hall, and she was hoping to get some of the money back through the court's compensation methods.

But the latest hearing, in which Cook was told to pay her just £1 as he had no assets, has left her penniless - and disillusioned with the justice system.

Ms Hall said: "What is so painful is I haven't done anything wrong."

She claims he told her about family bereavements and threats from drug barons to get money out of her.

She said: "It pulled at my heart strings, it really did. It was typical of the emotional blackmail all the time. He was a serial liar. I believed all of this - now how stupid do I feel?"

Ms Hall said they both knew many comedians through her father or through the Comedians' Golf Club. Cook was a member.

"He got me to divorce my husband so I could be with him, but he didn't divorce his wife," she said.

The borrowing became a regular thing. Each time it was for some new emergency in his life, or that of his family.

Maidstone Crown Court insisted he produce the money or an explanation of where it had gone and the prosecution discovered he gambled most of it away.

Ms Hall said: "I want everyone to know what he is like. When he gambled it away, his debt was £200,000.

"He was good at issuing fraudulent cheques - he issued one to me for £40,000."

Ms Hall's father was well known locally. He was a popular impresario who had placed Cook and his comedy routine at various clubs across Kent.

She said: "I just can't believe anyone would do this to the daughter of someone they knew who had given them work in the past."

There is an outside chance Ms Hall might get some cash back, but it is a slim one.

She said: "The police have been wonderful. They said that if I get any idea he is earning money, to let them know and they will drop on him like a ton of hot bricks."