A Highland woman who conned her family out of £35,000 as part of an elaborate Hollywood actress scam has been told to pay back the cash to her victims.
Ann Dunlop, 68, claimed a woman she knew was being lined up for million-pound contracts.
The fraudster convinced her brother David Bunton, 51, to hand the woman cash to help her make the breakthrough.
She claimed that the woman was mingling with A-list celebrities including Leonardo Di Caprio, Beyoncé, and Jay-Z as well as being managed by US entertainment executive Irving Azoff.
Dunlop, of Beauly, also deceived her sister Jean Allan and her husband Steve with a string of lies.
‘Champagne on tap’ lifestyle
Steve believed Dunlop and the aspiring actress had “champagne on tap” at the plush London home they shared.
He told the High Court in Glasgow that he believed Dunlop and her family were “like the Waltons” but ended up “like the Dingles.”
Steve said the woman’s acting career was a “best-kept secret” and compared it to the nuclear codes at the top secret submarine base at Faslane.
Dunlop later asked Steve and Jean to pay her and the woman’s gas and council tax bills as she did not have enough money.
First-time offender Dunlop was found guilty last month of defrauding her family of a total of £35,368 following a criminal trial.
‘A work of fiction worthy of screenwriters or playwrights’
Sheriff Kevin McCarron said: “I’m driven to the conclusion that what she was telling her family was a work of fiction worthy of every one of the screenwriters or playwrights mentioned in this case.
“It is clear she led her family down a merry dance through this episode. She perpetrated a pretense that was clearly false to everyone.”
Sheriff McCarron deferred sentencing for 12 months and told Dunlop to pay back the cash to her relatives.
The court heard during the trial that the Hollywood hopeful had appeared in a non-speaking role in a BBC period drama as well as a TV show starring comedian Noel Fielding.
David Bunton – the chief executive of a life science company – was approached by his sister Dunlop and the aspiring actress in March 2016 after he sold his business.
He stated that he handed over £5,000 to the pair in order for the actress to “build her career”.
Mr Bunton told the court that he was informed by Dunlop that the woman was being represented by Irving Azoff.
“There was talk about meeting Beyonce and Jay-Z…movies with Quentin Tarantino and Michael Keaton,” he said, adding: “She went to the Oscars to make various connections.
“Azoff was her manager. She met Leonardo Di Caprio and she was working on promotional activity for Chanel, which would go alongside her movies.”
The family were also told that the woman was set to star in a movie version of the musical Wicked, directed by Tim Burton.
Mr Bunton said that he was unaware of the financial figure the woman was to receive but believed it was in the millions.
He handed over a further £27,000 to the pair as he heard that Dunlop and her husband, who also lived with them, were “struggling.”
Mr Bunton also covered the bill for their council tax and gas.
Prosecutor Redmond Harris asked him about any repayment.
“It was promised…this was made clear by phone calls and texts,” Mr Bunton commented.
But he was not paid back and his suspicions rose after the woman failed to appear in a Chanel Christmas advert in 2016.
‘Movie type of lifestyle in London’
Fears were further heightened after Mr Bunton hired a private investigator to keep tabs on the woman.
He explained:”[We wanted] to establish if there was a relationship with Irving Azoff and if it was true that she was an actor and was there any basis to what we had been told in previous months?”
Mr Harris asked: “Following things with the private investigator, were your suspicions greater or unfounded?”
Mr Bunton replied: “It confirmed what our fears were”.
He then met Dunlop in a London pub in 2017 but did not receive a satisfactory answer as to why he had not been paid back.
Mr Harris asked: “What do you know about the woman’s acting career?”
Mr Bunton responded: “From internet searching, there was no career to my knowledge”.
The witness and Dunlop’s brother-in-law Steven Allan, 66, claimed they were under the impression Dunlop and the woman were living a “movie type of lifestyle in London”.
‘I thought I had married into the Waltons…I didn’t know I had actually married into the Dingles’
Mr Allan recalled visiting the pair at their Notting Hill home for Dunlop’s 60th birthday party.
“I had never seen so many bottles of champagne…the champagne was on tap there,” he remarked.
Mr Allan stated that the ambitious actress shopped at Harrod’s and went to handbag stores in London.
He paid for Dunlop’s £600 gas bill in November 2016 before transferring £1,000 of his overdraft to her as “she said she didn’t have enough money”.
Mr Allan claimed Dunlop told him that he would be repaid in two weeks, adding: “The explanation was there was a large sum of money in Coutts bank but it was put in an investment fund and it was not available immediately but it would be sorted out”.
He also stated that he was later told by Dunlop that Tim Burton had collected the woman’s bank cards and put them in a safe.
Mr Harris asked about Mr Allan’s relationship with his wife’s family before the bank transfers.
He answered: “I thought I had married into the Waltons…I didn’t know I had actually married into the Dingles”.
Mr Allan said the woman’s acting career was the “best-kept secret…better than the nuclear codes at Faslane”.
Dunlop told the court in her evidence that she believed the Hollywood hopeful did star in the roles she had been informed about.
She claimed that she asked for money from her family as her husband became unwell and had to stop working.
Dunlop told the court that the aspiring actress is to appear on a US TV show for which she has so far filmed one episode.
Kevin Banks, defending, asked if his client Dunlop and the woman wanted to pay David Bunton back.
“Yes, as she is still due money from the film,” the accused responded.
Mr Harris asked Dunlop why the woman was not at court to come to her rescue.
“I didn’t want her to come,” she answered, adding: “My husband has to have someone at home but I didn’t want to put her through this – what can she say that I can’t?”
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