Georgina Masters believed she was in a committed relationship with an African man named Joseph Trimble when she agreed in February 2017 to let him use her bank account for a series of money transfers totalling $68,500 that defrauded a Wagga Wagga retiree of his life savings.

She told police the pair had connected on Facebook and spoke on the phone daily, but had never met in person. Still, she said Trimble had confessed his love and planned to move to Australia so they could marry.

So Masters said she didn’t hesitate when Trimble initially asked her to accept a stranger’s deposit of $15,000 into her account.

He then had her send him the cash via international money transfer, telling her the funds would be used for building projects in South Africa. She later told investigating police there were seven transactions in total worth a combined $68,500. 

She admitted having concerns about the authenticity of the money but didn’t act on those concerns.

“I honestly thought he loved me...I trusted him,” she told police, but admitted her actions had been “reckless” and she should have known the money wasn’t legitimate.

A police investigation revealed Masters was part of a larger conspiracy scam involving $100,000 of the Wagga retiree’s money.

Detectives arrested Masters at her Unanderra house in June 2017 and seized a vast quantity of evidence including transaction receipts, bank statements and hand-written notes. 

Masters was eventually charged with dealing with proceeds of crime to which she pleaded guilty.

In sentencing her to jail last month, Magistrate Michael Stoddart questioned her lack of common sense.

“Surely common sense would tell you there’s something wrong with this...now there’s an unfortunate gentleman in Wagga who has lost his life savings,” he said.

However, Masters’ imprisonment was overturned on appeal in Wollongong District Court last week after Judge Warwick Hunt accepted submissions from defence lawyer Matt Ward that Masters age, loneliness and a past history of domestic violence had made her susceptible to manipulation.

Masters was instead handed a six month suspended prison sentence.