A serial Fraserburgh fraudster has been convicted of scamming her friend into handing over tens of thousands of pounds by pretending to make a documentary about Hillary Clinton.
Anne Mulloy or Leuser sat unmoved as the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict at Peterhead Sheriff Court this afternoon.
The Press and Journal can now reveal that the 61-year-old was previously jailed in November 2017 after admitting a similar scam involving a London TV production company, who also believed her lies about the non-existent Hillary Clinton project.
In that case, she even paid an actress £5,000 to impersonate a member of the former First Lady’s communications team in order to convince a British filmmaker that she was legitimate.
Mulloy – who went by her Leuser surname back then – was jailed for 44 months at Southwark Crown Court.
This week’s case in Peterhead has many similarities with the earlier fraud trial.
The jury heard evidence from her victim, former friend Helena Robertson, who told how she sent Mulloy thousands of pounds between 2011 and 2017, keeping a running total of these loans on a spreadsheet.
During her evidence, one of these totals was shown to the court and displayed a figure of £114,026.30, dated April 1, 2016.
Ms Robinson continued to send Mulloy money until April 2017, so the final figure could be higher.
The original charge claimed Mulloy had swindled her friend out of £85,710.02, but that figure was amended to simply ‘money’.
In his closing speech, fiscal depute Ruaridh McAllister urged the jury to convict the “calculating” Mulloy.
He said: “The evidence shows she is simply a cynical fraudster taking advantage of a caring friend. She told lies and fabrications.”
Mr McAllister also spoke of the fake court cases involving Aberdeenshire Council that Mulloy had fabricated as a way to put off paying her friend back.
He added: “It was just lies to scam more money from Helena.”
Mulloy’s defence counsel, Jordanna Blockley, told the jurors Ms Robinson should not be found credible because she was an “established actress” and suggested they had not been told the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.
However, the jury of six women and eight men took just one hour to find Mulloy unanimously guilty of fraud.
Mulloy claimed she knew Hillary Clinton and she would be getting behind-the-scenes access to her 2016 presidential campaign and team – and even faked an access letter from Clinton to back up her lies.
A member of Hillary Clinton’s team confirmed to the court that no one had ever heard of Anne Leuser or Mulloy and no such access had been granted.
In sometimes tearful evidence, Ms Robinson explained she thought she was loaning her friend cash to pay for a flat in London, living expenses and travel costs for business meetings with commissioning editors at BBC Scotland in Glasgow.
Previous fraud cases revealed
After the guilty verdict was returned, the jury was told Mulloy was previously found guilty of embezzlement in 2014 at Peterhead Sheriff Court.
And in November 2017, she was jailed after admitting using a stooge to impersonate a member of Mrs Clinton’s campaign team to swindle British filmmaker Alison Birley.
She negotiated and signed a contract with the producer, claiming she could offer behind-the-scenes access to the Democratic candidate’s election drive in exchange for £120,000.
The deal, including four payments of £30,000, dishonestly stated that she personally knew Mrs Clinton and other members of her staff.
Leuser also arranged a £3,434 all-expenses-paid trip to New York as part of the scam, which was carried out between April 1, 2016, and January 31, 2017.
She subsequently admitted she never had any type of relationship with Mrs Clinton, apart from a brief encounter at an event.
Ms Robinson came forward to report her own scam at Mulloy’s hands after becoming aware of the 2017 case in London.
Sheriff Craig Findlater said “all options of sentencing” were open to the court, including custody, but deferred sentencing for reports.
Before the jury returned its verdict, Mulloy delivered a foul-mouthed rebuke to our photographer, saying: “I haven’t even been found guilty yet!”
Mulloy, of Topping Gardens, Fraserburgh, was ordered to return to court on May 20.
