Talk about snake oil? This is about as con as con can get…
A pilot repeatedly raped a woman in a cruel con which his victim believed was part of an elaborate course of treatment for herpes, a jury heard today.
Syrian-born Fadi Sbano, 38, allegedly conned his victim into handing over hard cash for the cream he administered through sex.
The Britannia Airways pilot, from Edgware, north London, pocketed £5,500 in total in an alleged scam running over several months.
Swansea Crown Court heard today that Sbano originally told his victim, a woman from Pembrokeshire, west Wales, he was dying of cancer.
He claimed he had been told he had just six months to live and that sex was the only way to alleviate his condition.
As a result the woman, 36, a former teacher in a private school, readily agreed to have sex with him in an effort to relieve his pain.
Later she developed an illness which doctors at first believed was typhoid but which was eventually diagnosed as herpes.
At that point Sbano stepped in with what he claimed was advice from a friend who was a consultant regarding the best way to carry out her treatment.
He offered to administer an expensive cream, which he got the woman to pay for, through regular anal sex which he timed with a clock.
He had previously told her that the cream, developed in America, was very expensive and the treatment usually painful.
In evidence she told the court today: “I thought that he was doing it in my interests and for my benefit. I thought I was consenting to a medical procedure.”