My girlfriend faked MS & threatened to kill herself if I didn’t pay for ‘medication’ – she spent it on make-up & trips
SABRINA Taylor and her boyfriend Adam sobbed in each other’s arms when she revealed doctors gave her the sad news she had Multiple Sclerosis.
The pair had first met on Craigslist in 2007 and instantly hit it off bonding over anime and comic books as their romance blossomed.
Adam revealed he was always on board with being a chivalrous boyfriend – happy to pay for dates and dinner as the primary earner.
Around 9 months into their relationship, Sabrina had moved in when she complained about her back hurting.
She claims she went to the doctor but Adam couldn’t come along as he was working and when he got home she dropped the bombshell.
Shock Diagnosis
He told Channel 4, Love Cheats: “But when I got home, we both sat down on the couch in the living room. She kind of said, ‘they’re pretty sure I have MS.’
“It was terrifying to me because that’s what killed my dad’s dad. I held her. We were sobbing because it’s definitely something that’s going to dramatically shorten your life. I was concerned.”
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord. It cannot currently be cured, but treatment can often help manage it.
Adam added that Sabrina was already on medication for other health problems, and was now forking the bill for MS medicine also.
In America, health insurance is vital to get a fair price on health needs, but it seems hers was never working leading Adam to fork out hundreds of pounds each time she needed a new prescription.
“She’d be crying. She’s freaking out and battling some excuses. Eventually, she says, ‘If we can’t get this. I should just kill myself,'” Adam recalls.
He would spend his time talking her out of her suicide attempts, getting payday loans and credit cards out to pay for her treatment.
“I was head over heels, and this was someone that I didn’t think I was going to just stumble across again. When she needed help, that was my boyfriendly duty,” he explained.
But red flags were spotted in the beginning of their relationship by friends.
Rain said: “Aaron and Sabrina seemed happy, but he seemed to not have a voice, if that makes any sense. He was always quiet and, you know, she was always like, she would be grabbing him and taking him somewhere. She was always in the lead.”
Another friend admitted Sabrina always had expensive taste – always going for high-end make-up and clothes and wouldn’t settle for less.
Spotting signs of financial abuse
Although the 'trad wife' lifestyle is a choice for those who don't mind being financial dependant, you should be aware of the signs of financial abuse.
These can include, but aren’t limited to:
- Stopping you from going to work, college or university
- Causing you to lose out on benefits by not letting you go to appointments at the Jobcentre or apply for jobs
- Controlling your access to essential things, such as food, clothing or transport
- Forces you to take out money or get credit in your name
- Makes you hand over control of your accounts – this could include changing your login details
- They cash in your pension or other cheques without your permission
- Adds their name to your account
- Pressures you to change your will in a way you’re not comfortable with
- Has offered to buy shopping or pay bills with your money, but takes it, and doesn’t use the money how you agreed
- Asks you to prove what you’ve spent your money on
- Stops you from accessing your bank, loan or credit card accounts
- Controls what you can and can’t spend your money on
- Sets up Direct Debits from your account to pay bills which aren’t yours or pay for goods and services which you haven’t bought
- Pressures you to arrange for your benefits to be paid into a bank account you don’t have access to
- Pressures you to draw down, transfer or stop making pension payments
- Makes you take out new insurance policies or stops you from paying your existing ones
To gain access to help, you can contact Women’s Aid: on their website, and online chat service.
You can also call the freephone 24-Hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 200 0247
Money Moves
Eventually, Adam got his dream job working at Nintendo, with his new role and Sabrina’s promise she was entitled to £70,000 from her granddad’s inheritance in a few months he became comfortable financing Sabrina’s lifestyle and medication.
The demands grew with my supply.
Adam
But now Adam was on a better salary, Sabrina’s financial needs grew including Interferon to help with her MS which was around £700 a month.
Adam didn’t think twice about helping his girlfriend and was thrilled when his salary doubled, but once again, Sabrina needed more from him.
“The demands grew with my supply. Literally, within a month or two, we were living paycheck to paycheck again,” Adam added.
“Sabrina put a lot of pressure on me to get a new car, it couldn’t be a used car, and it had to be this very specific model. She says she needs to have a house.”
When the date came for Sabrina to get her inheritance, none of the money showed up.
Friend’s said she became so worried Adam would leave she threatened to self-harm multiple times – the stress on him looking after her meant he lost his dream job.
She then approached their friends for loans and money, using Adam’s name as a guarantor to pay them back without his consent.
In the end, friends ditched the pair because of Sabrina’s begging leaving Adam completely broken.
The last straw was when she asked to open the relationship up as she had already made out with one of her friends behind his back.
Truth Comes Out
That’s when Adam met Keo one night while out at a party – Sabrina sent him a flurry of texts claiming she was going to end her life again.
When he got to her apartment and she was out for dinner with friends instead – Adam realised he had been played all along.
He said: “The house of cards just fell apart.”
Adam decided to do some digging on an MS community online, inquiring about the medication Sabrina had him pay for when people revealed they had nothing to do with MS.
It was decided by Adam that the relationship was over and Sabrina moved out the next day but it wasn’t the end of their story.
Instead, she told everyone he was emotionally and physically abusive, leaving Adam alone apart from Keo.
The pair soon married and decided they wanted a child – but reality hit them that his debt would mean they couldn’t and the pair divorced.
Keo said: “She took the future that I thought I was going to have with this man. The impact emotionally and mentally that this inflicted on Aaron transferred into our marriage.
“I saved him from this relationship, but I sacrificed ours.”
Caught Out
Things came to a head when friends, like Rain, began a fundraiser to get money for Sabrina’s MS online.
Dozens of people, including Adam, commented saying she was a fraud and her friend decided there must be some truth to it all.
Rain revealed: “I was in communication with friends in Japan who were documenting all the stuff that happened while she was there.
“Sabrina claimed that she spent the day considering throwing herself in front of the bullet train in Japan when in reality, she spent the day at Disney Tokyo.
No amount of money will ever get that amount of trust that I had in other people back.
Adam
“The same time she was begging for money from people in the States, she was spending $1,000 on toys and stuff to take to bring home.”
Adam was then contacted by the FBI who were investigating Sabrina where she was charged with four counts of wire fraud.
In the end, they found between eight to ten people who she had swindled – taking over £500,000 and was jailed for just 27 months.
It was revealed she had spent the majority of the money on comic books, make-up, and travelling to Japan and Korea.
“Financially, the final total was just shy of $100,000. I can’t put a price on the emotional toll,” said Adam.
“I could win the lottery next week and square all of my debts. No amount of money will ever get that amount of trust that I had in other people back.”