A businessman who gave nearly £200,000 to a Tinder date he later discovered had wed another man just weeks before they met is fighting in court to get his money back.
Oil industry consultant Marcel Kooter, 61, said he was “blinded by attraction” when he agreed to transfer the money to Manuela Radeva, 41, who claimed to be an investment manager for Citibank, after meeting her on the dating app.
Soon after they met in 2017 she moved into his luxury apartment in Woolwich, South East London.
They had a nine-month relationship but he found she had recently married and was not a professional financier.
After they split he sued in 2019 for the return of £182,000 which he said he gave her in the belief she was a professional who would invest it for him.
The High Court heard they had enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of skiing holidays and stays in expensive hotels. Mr Kooter splashed out thousands of pounds on gifts including designer luggage and a Chanel handbag and purse for his Bulgarian lover.
Michael Collard, representing Ms Radeva, claimed the payments made to her had been part of their lavish “domestic expenses as a couple”.
He added: “This was a relationship with lots of kisses. It was not a professional relationship between the two of them.”
Ms Radeva told the judge she had never said she was an investment manager and that trading was merely her “hobby in the evening”.
But the judge said a screenshot of her 2017 Tinder profile “stated...that she was employed by Citibank”.
She had also signed off emails “Manuela Radeva, Capital Investment Manager”.
The judge ordered Ms Radeva to pay Mr Kooter £182,050, plus £3,641 interest and his £20,000 legal costs, totalling more than £205,000.
But within a month of that 2019 ruling Ms Radeva had filed for bankruptcy and Mr Kooter never got his money.
He challenged her bankruptcy on the basis that her “centre of main interest” for insolvency purposes at the time was not England but Bulgaria.
The bankruptcy has now been annulled after a judge ruled it was based on a string of false statements and a faked university certificate to create an “illusion” that Ms Radeva was UK-based and so eligible for bankruptcy here.
She had claimed she lived in Epsom, Surrey, had been educated and worked in the UK and that it was where she had her social life and conducted her business.
But Judge Raquel Agnello KC said significant doubt had been cast on her claims, including that she had completed a master’s degree at Birkbeck UCL – a university that does not exist.
The judge added: “It is difficult to imagine that a person who attended either of these well-known higher education institutions and obtained an MBA there, would make such an error.”
A purported certificate showing her attendance on a course had misspelled the name of the genuine university of Birkbeck and contained other errors.
Ms Radeva had also claimed to have worked in marketing jobs in the UK, including at Picturehouse Cinemas, but had provided no details or any evidence of having received a salary or paying tax.
The case will return to court to decide on the consequences of the judge’s order.
