A CHILDLESS couple who had their savings stolen by a woman who posed as a surrogate mother hit out last night after the cruel con artist walked free from court.

Samantha Cookes was spared a prison sentence after a judge at Teesside Crown Court heard how she has suffered three years of untreated psychiatric problems.

Her victims told The Northern Echo: “We are annoyed she did not get a harsher punishment – it’s just a slap on the wrist after all the hurt she has caused.”

Cookes, 23, duped the North Yorkshire couple into handing over hundreds of pounds for her expenses and legal fees as they planned their longed-for pregnancy.

The former York University student told a series of believable tales and created such a plausible story that the couple never got suspicious – until it was too late.

She told them she was a social worker and had been a surrogate for a wealthy family in the Midlands, who would be prepared to put up references on her behalf.

The fraudster then created a Facebook account in the name of the fictitious mother,and exchanged messages with the couple about her “wonderful” experience.

In one posting under the guise of Claudia Bronwyn, she said: “I am extremely grateful to Samantha – she has an incredible heart. She has given us the wonderful gift of our daughter, Lily.”

She provided fake documents showing she had been a surrogate, and urged them to quickly decide if they wanted her help because she had others on a waiting list.

Cookes then demanded payment for expenses – including travelling to see the couple at their home in Northallerton – and for her solicitor to draw up the contract.

The excited pair used all their savings as well as cash from the wife’s business as they chased the dream of becoming parents after the heartache of three failed IVF cycles.

Within days of their first meeting, Cookes began repeatedly asked for money for things such as a surrogacy contract and health insurance upgrade.

She was talking of getting the insemination kits, but not long afterwards the couple started to get suspicious when she began avoiding telephone calls and text messages.

Cookes was arrested at her home in Shropshire after the couple called in police, and her claims about being a social worker and surrogate were found to be fake.

The court heard yesterday how Cookes had suffered untreated psychiatric problems since she lost her four-monthold daughter to cot death in November 2008.

Psychiatrist Dr Stewart Vaggers said in a report: “There is a clear psychological link between her loss and her decision to act as a surrogate for an infertile couple.”

Kieran Rainey, mitigating,said: “The whole case is one steeped in sadness.

“There is the couple’s difficulty in having their own child and the false hope Miss Cookes gave them, and also the tragedy of her own loss in 2008.

“Even today, when she looks back, she doesn’t see offering surrogacy as a bad thing, but she immediately became involved in a deception which she now truly regrets.”

A letter from Cookes, of Ferndale Avenue, Telford, was read out in court. In it, she said: “I want to apologise for my mistake and the hurt I’ve caused. I’m truly sorry.

“Now I am in intensive therapy, I can see that I never dealt with my grief after my daughter’s sudden death and I am sorry this caused me to hurt other people.

“I hope to resolve my mental illness... this will never erase my mistake, though.

Never again will I get myself into trouble... I never want to hurt anyone else again.”

Cookes was given a nine month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with Probation Service supervision after she admitted fraud by false representation.

The judge, Recorder Ben Nolan, also ordered her to pay £1,890 in compensation – which includes the money she took and the added costs the couple incurred.

The court heard how Cookes left her course at York University in her first year after discovering she was 17 weeks’ pregnant – but planned to return after the birth.

Mr Rainey said she was “enjoying being a mother” but in November 2008 she put the baby to sleep and took a nap herself, but woke to find her dead in her crib.

She tried to resume her studies in the Midlands, but was excluded when she failed to complete the required Criminal Records Bureau and occupational health checks.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, told the court that police found fake paperwork which purported to show Cookes was a social worker with an honours degree.

In the recycle bin on her computer was, among other things, a surrogacy contract dated April 28, and an expenses document dated the previous day.

What the judge said RECORDER Ben Nolan told Cookes: “You have pleaded guilty to a very cruel and hurtful fraud. Your victims were particularly vulnerable because their natural and unfulfilled desire was to have children.

“They resorted to what, to some extent, was a last resort. [The wife] visited a blog on a website, and you, purporting to offer surrogacy services, contacted them offering to help.

“You were clearly carrying out a deception and you persisted in this deception for a period of around four months. There was a great deal of sophistication and deliberation about that deception. Having contacted them, you arranged to go and see them at their home, you demanded money for your travel.

“You met them in March 2010 and told them, quite falsely, you were a court-approved social worker and you had been to university. You talked about having been a surrogate mother and you told them you were a member of a respectable organisation, Childlessness Overcome Through Surrogacy. You were not such a member, you had nothing to do with that organisation. On further contact, you took further money from them, suggesting that that money was necessary for contract purposes, for solicitors and for other purposes relating to your decision to become a surrogate mother for them.

“All that was wholly bogus and it is little wonder to me that [the wife], in particular, having realised that she was misled in such a cruel way, has suffered quite serious psychological consequences.

“It is clear this crosses the custody threshold and it is easy to see why the magistrates considered it was outside their jurisdiction.

“On the other side of the coin there is a psychiatric report which reveals a very complex emotional background to your offending, and, in particular, in November 2008 you suffered a terrible bereavement when your four-month-old baby succumbed to a cot death.

“You clearly needed counselling. That counselling was not available and you suffered quite serious depressive consequences from that bereavement.

“Because of this complex psychological and emotional background, I am prepared to suspend the sentence which otherwise I would have imposed immediately.”