AN INVERCLYDE woman who name dropped Leonardo Di Caprio and Beyonce as she conned her family out of tens of thousands of pounds in a bogus Hollywood actress scam has been told to pay back the cash.

Ann Dunlop, 68, had claimed that an un-named woman whom she knew was being lined up for lucrative movie and commercial deals.

She convinced her brother David Bunton, 51, to part with thousands of pounds to help the 'perfomer' make the breakthrough. 

Dunlop claimed that her friend was mingling with A-listers such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Beyonce as well as being managed by famous US entertainment executive Irving Azoff.

Dunlop, formerly of Greenock and Port Glasgow, also spun a string of lies to her sister induced her sister, Jean, and brother-in-law Steve Allan.

But despite a seemingly champagne lifestyle in London, the fraudster later asked the couple for help in paying the un-named woman's gas and council tax bills.

First offender Dunlop was found guilty last month of defrauding her family to the tune of £35,368 at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

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."

 

Dunlop's brother Mr Bunton told the court: "There was talk about meeting Beyonce and Jay Z...movies with Quentin Tarantino and Michael Keaton.

 

"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 figure the woman was to receive but believed it was millions.

Mr Bunton was not paid back and his suspicions rose after the woman failed to appear in a Chanel Christmas advert in 2016.

Fears further heightened after he hired a private investigator to keep tabs on the woman.

He said: "It confirmed what our fears were."

Mr Bunton met his sister in a London pub in 2017 but did not receive a satisfactory answer as to why he had not been paid back.

Asked what he knew of the woman's acting career, he replied: "From internet searching, there was no career to my knowledge."

Dunlop's brother-in-law Steven Allan, 66, claimed he was under the impression Dunlop and the woman were living a 'movie type of lifestyle in London'.

He said: "I had never seen so many bottles of champagne...the champagne was on tap there."

He later 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 added: "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."

Mr Allan stated that he was later told by Dunlop that Tim Burton had collected the woman's bank cards and put them in a safe.

Asked about his relationship with his wife's family before the bank transfers, Mr Allan replied: "I thought I had married into the Waltons...I didn't know I had actually married into the Dingles."

Dunlop told the court that the woman is to appear on a US TV show, of which she has filmed one episode of so far.

Kevin Banks, defending, asked if Dunlop and the woman want to pay the money back.

She said: "Yes, as she is still due money from the film."

Asked why the woman was not at court to come to her rescue, Dunlop said: "I didn't want her to come.

"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?"

Sheriff McCarron deferred sentence for 12 months and told Dunlop to pay back the cash to her family.