Original subtitles

[Sue Hughes] For the past 25 years,

my life was not real.

Everything was a lie.

Sue Hughes paid well in excess of £100,000,

for what she thought was her man's cancer treatment.

[Sue] He's my best friend's uncle,

of course I'm gonna help.

[Cusack] Sue was so far invested

in this quest to save Ste,

that she was completely blinded by it.

If you've got feelings for someone,

you would do anything for them.

[Cusack] All the time,

she didn't confide in anybody else what she was doing.

This wasn't opportunistic. It wasn't impulsive.

It was cold, and it was calculated.

[Charlene Bonner] I started thinking more about

all these gifts that were coming,

and then that's when I knew that something was off.

There was nothing to tell me what was going on.

She would look at her bank statements,

and realize the size of the hole that she was in.

When Sue didn't believe me,

I just thought, "She's gonna have to learn on her own."

And she did.

Then, all the lies started to unravel.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

That's the point at which Sue goes to the police,

-and that's what she did. -[sirens wailing]

[Atherton] This was an extreme example

of a terrible abuse of trust.

My name's Susan Hughes.

I live in Birkenhead.

I'm a 50-year-old woman, just turned.

First time I met Anna, was at work,

in a supported living home.

I cooked, she cleaned.

Come to dinnertime,

and she's serving meals.

[Cusack] They had a lot in common,

and really found that they shared a sense of humor.

Then they started, like,

working things so they could do shifts together,

in the care home.

And seeing each other afterwards

and going for drinks, and generally having a laugh.

And they became the best of friends, and they really hit it off.

Me and Anna, kinda like two peas in a pod.

We were really, really close.

We did virtually everything together.

We were both single at the time.

We'd go out nearly every weekend,

so I'd go to work,

then I'd party Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

[Sue] That's the house where

me and Anna lived together.

Her bedroom was at front.

Mine was at the back.

She was all right to live with, to be fair.

She'd polish, I'd hoover.

Uh, she'd cook, I'd wash the dishes.

If I was in the shower and she needed a wee,

she'd just come in and have a wee.

I'd be the same.

It just felt normal.

Comfortable.

They're happy memories.

We had fun in that house.

We were really, really close.

We did virtually everything together.

[club music]

RJ's was the happening club at the time.

It was the kind of place where people would put their glad rags on

and go out for the night out on a Friday, Saturday night.

It'd have bouncers, it'd play chart music, it had neon lights.

[Sue] One night, I'd seen this bouncer,

talking to Anna, I was, like, "Oh, he's okay."

Anna went, "That's my uncle, Ste.

Ste Lucas."

"Really?" Oh, I thought my luck was in.

Sue has an episode of love at first sight with the bouncer.

[Sue] When Anna told me he was her uncle,

I was, like,

"Yeah, I do quite fancy him."

And she's, like,

"Let's see what we can do."

[Cusack] She was immediately struck by him.

Ste, the baldy-headed, big bear of a bouncer,

apparently was very kind to her.

Anna never formally introduced us.

In RJ's, it was really loud,

like most clubs are.

He was always smiling at me.

He'd say something, not that I could hear him.

I'd say something, not that he could hear me.

So this one night, I decided

I was taking my camera out.

I think I took

everybody's photograph in there.

All the bouncers, the staff.

And yeah, I did take Ste's photograph as well.

What drew me to Ste?

He did have a cheeky smile.

He did have a nice bum.

There was a lot of flirting going on between me and him.

We'd never kissed.

We never met outside the club.

When Sue meets Ste,

there's an instant connection between the two of them,

but in addition to that,

Anna says that Ste is her uncle.

So from Sue's perspective,

it is a relative of a close friend,

so there's already an in-built layer of trust,

of safety, within that relationship.

[Cusack] Around the time of the millennium,

RJ's shuts down.

The girls have to find somewhere else to go for their nights out.

Poor Sue is more concerned about

Ste the bouncer disappearing out of her life.

Sue and Ste would see each other

every week at this nightclub.

They didn't spend any time with each other

outside of that context,

but we have to remember that this was in the late '90s.

People didn't really have mobile phones.

Social media didn't exist.

So this would have been quite typical for that time.

There was nothing abnormal about their interactions.

When the nightclub closes,

from Sue's perspective, it might be a bit upsetting,

'cause she might've broken that connection with Ste,

who she's got romantic interest in.

But having said that,

she knows that it's Anna's uncle,

so she must've held onto a sliver of hope,

knowing that there's still a chance

that she might see him again,

and that this could potentially even blossom

into something a bit more romantic.

[Charlene] Sue used to look after us.

She was funny. She used to play with us.

She was more of a kid than us.

She used to make us laugh.

I used to call Sue growing up "Aunty Soup",

because I couldn't pronounce her name.

Charlene, Anna's foster daughter,

is her maternal niece.

Charlene has lived with Anna since she was two.

[producer] How would you like to refer to Anna, in this?

I usually call her mom.

-[producer] Okay. You're happy with that, yeah? -Yeah.

[Charlene] When I was growing up, my mom was lovely.

She would want to do stuff with me.

She'd be like a typical mom,

might want to go to the park, want to take me out,

we used to go to the zoo all the time.

Just spend time together, really.

When I was younger,

my mom used to get me lots of birthday presents, Christmas presents.

She used to spoil us. We used to get lots of toys, and gifts.

We did have lots of good times.

When I was growing up,

my mom's and Sue's relationship,

they were best friends.

They used to go out clubbing every weekend,

so Sue would come round to our house

and get ready with her,

and then they wouldn't usually roll in 'til the next morning. [chuckles]

[Sue] I was chief bridesmaid.

She asked me to be her matron of honor.

My first memory that I can remember of Sue

is when my mom had her wedding.

But because I was only a baby,

I was kicking off because I wanted the balloons.

And my mom wouldn't let me have them,

but Sue kept giving me them when she wasn't looking. [chuckles]

[Sue] Ste didn't go to her wedding.

He was apparently busy with work.

Which, to be fair, didn't seem unusual.

[Sue] As the years went on,

Anna's giving me updates on Ste.

He moved to America.

He got married, he had kids.

He then got divorced.

Anna would fill me in

on what's he doing and things like that,

I'd buy him his Christmas present, a birthday present,

she'd give it to him.

Um, it was just like...

...he's family.

After RJ's closes down,

and apart from snippets of information

that she's fed from Anna,

she doesn't see anything, sight or sound, of Ste,

but she never forgets him.

She still carries a torch for him, in her heart.

Ste has always been in the background.

Yes, I don't see him.

But he's always been there.

Anna sent me a couple of photos of Ste.

I did question it,

because one of the photos,

he's wearing a wedding ring.

But at this point, Ste's divorced.

I ask Anna, "Why has he got a wedding ring on?"

"Oh, it's probably an old photograph

from when he was married."

The photograph I took,

he had a gap in his teeth.

And he had no hair.

In these photos, he's got no gap,

and he's got a little bit of hair.

I, uh, said to Anna, "Where's his gap?"

"He's had his teeth fixed."

It's plausible. You can. Okay.

[Sue] It's 2011. It's around Christmas.

[phone ringing]

[Sue] It's a male voice with a little accent.

Tells me, "It's Ste."

I'm in shock.

I've not seen him for a long time.

He wants to catch up.

He said that he was in America.

Doing really well for himself.

Said he's part owner, or full owner,

of businesses out there.

During that phone call, uh, Ste,

whilst he didn't express any kind

of romantic intentions towards her,

he talked about them two in the future.

[Sue] He then asks if I'm buying him a Christmas present.

I always buy him a Christmas present.

He wanted this

HD camcorder. Okay.

I told Ste I would think about it.

Went back to work.

I've got butterflies.

I then rings Anna,

We're both shocked Ste has rang me.

I didn't even think he had my number.

It was a shock.

It was a nice shock.

Sue gets this phone call out of the blue,

after many years, and it's Ste.

So finally, after feeling that this,

this potential relationship has gone by the wayside,

she has this little sliver of hope.

[Sue] When I got the phone call,

it was more the fact

that Ste had rang me,

not the fact that he had asked for a camcorder for Christmas.

It was the fact he rang me.

I've always thought of him.

It's no different.

It's nothing much.

It's like a bottle of vodka,

or a pair of socks.

These presents just come from

a bottle of vodka, to a camcorder.

Although it might seem like a bit of an odd request,

for somebody to ask for a camcorder as a present,

Sue had been sending Ste gifts

for years via Anna,

using her as a conduit.

So she obviously shows her generosity.

So it's not particularly that unusual

or atypical for Ste to want something a bit more,

to ask for this camcorder, on this occasion.

So, yeah. I bought it.

I wrapped it,

I then gave it to Anna,

to give to him when she gave him

his Christmas presents from her.

[Das] The phone call from Ste,

I'm sure would have made him feel like a tangible presence,

after a long absence,

and it also would have made

a potential relationship feel real once again.

Ste gets cancer.

Struggles with the health system out there,

without adequate health insurance,

and comes home to the UK for treatment.

His cancer goes into remission.

And he starts resuming his life,

gets a job as a doorman,

uh, at a nightclub,

uh, in Liverpool, called Garlands.

Anna tells Sue that not only is he working there,

but he's looking forward to meeting up with them,

and do you fancy coming to the club that Saturday night?

So Sue's all excited.

She buys a new dress.

She goes with Anna for the week.

She gets all her glad rags on and gets her hair done.

When they get there, he's nowhere to be seen.

And Garlands is quite a big club, with different rooms.

So the two women spend most of the night

meandering around the rooms, looking for Ste.

But they still didn't find him.

She goes home heartbroken.

[police sirens]

[Cusack] There was a huge drug trade at Garlands.

We know drug dealing has been taking place in this premises,

so we've executed a search warrant,

and we will subsequently be issuing a closure notice.

A lot of people were lifted and arrested from the club.

[Sue] I was told Ste was arrested in Garlands, when it was raided.

Found to have alleged drugs on him.

He was then charged,

and convicted, and sent to prison.

[Das] It must have been a rollercoaster of emotions for Sue.

Ste has finally returned from the States,

so he is accessible, he's nearby,

possibly, they can meet up,

possibly it could lead to some kind of relationship,

but then, out of the blue, he's suddenly arrested,

and this must have been a devastating blow

towards Sue and her future plans.

Sue is clearly a generous and kind person,

so when she hears of this soul-crushing news,

that Ste has been sent to prison,

of course she wants to help.

When Anna says that there's an opportunity

to help him out financially,

because of her personality and her nature,

Sue puts herself in that position.

Anna, I loved like a sister.

Some decisions I have made

were done for the right reasons.

Um, this guy I had feelings for,

if you've got feelings for someone,

you would do anything for them.

[Sue] This guy, who wasn't even 40,

uh, he's looking at a death sentence.

I was gutted.

[Cusack] Anna breaks the news that Ste's ill.

And Sue was devastated.

Even though 15, 16, 17 years have gone by,

she's still carrying the torch for him.

So it must have been love.

So Anna starts talking about fundraising,

and getting money together,

for Ste to go for revolutionary, uh,

testicular cancer treatment, in Maryland, in the US.

Anna said, "I can't afford it on my own.

Will you help?"

Well, of course I'm gonna help.

It's a friend.

And if it helps,

and he gets more life, why not?

Ste, maybe, possibly, there is a future there.

So, yeah.

I made the decision to help.

[Sue] Anna said, "He needs more treatment."

It goes from £1,000

to £1,200.

And then it ended up £1,800 a month,

just for treatment.

The hospital decided that

he was too institutionalized,

and they wanted to move Ste into a flat

that was connected to the hospital.

So he would still get his treatment,

but he'd have his own space.

Which I thought was a good idea.

So that was gonna cost me

£450 a month.

Okay. We can do this.

And then every six months,

it was £2,400.

And that was just for paying a machine to clean his bloods.

If it would help him, yeah.

If I missed a payment,

they would charge extra.

If I was late with payments,

they would charge extra.

So the payments had to be paid on time.

She starts building an imaginary future

for herself, in her head, for her and Ste.

He's in hospital. He's on his own.

So you wanna cheer him up.

He's asked for letters off me.

So I write, three, four letters a month.

They're not short letters, either.

It's like, five, six A4 pages.

He started sending love letters to her.

Lockets. Valentine's cards.

She's sending him large sums of money,

as well as gifts.

[Sue] All these things I'm sending and writing,

I give to Anna,

who then takes them over to America to him.

Anna then leaves the phone with Ste,

who...

...messages me.

And that I'm a good person.

And that he's really grateful

for me paying, and helping him get better.

And he would make it up to me.

He can't wait to make memories with me,

he is kicking himself

for not realizing sooner

that he has feelings for me.

I was shocked.

I was happy.

It's took him a while, but eventually, he got there.

[Das] From Sue's perspective, these letters,

these cards that she's receiving from Ste

re-validate the strength of their relationship.

It continues the cycle,

because it's something tangible,

it's something that she's getting back.

It's feedback for her generosity.

It might seem strange to some of us

that Sue would be communicating to Ste

through somebody else's phone, through Anna's mobile.

But everything seemed credible.

[Sue] Nobody knew that I was paying for

Ste's experimental treatment.

My parents, friends, no one.

I didn't tell anyone...

...because I didn't think

they'd understand why I was paying it.

Of course I'm gonna help.

From about 14, I think, I started noticing

Sue would bring various gifts round

for different occasions, so, say, Valentine's Day,

she brought, like, a big gift bag

full of teddies, chocolate,

like, a big card, and there was, like,

a heart-engraved stone,

it said, "I always love you."

Something along those lines.

My mom used to say, "Oh, they're for himself."

And I'd be dead confused.

I wasn't quite sure who they were for.

And I asked my mom, like, "Why are they here?"

And she said, "Oh, just don't tell her",

or, when she'd come round, she'd say "Oh, hide them."

And then that's when I knew that something was off.

I thought, like, she's lied.

And then it was annoying me

that she was doing all this to Sue and Sue didn't know.

[Sue] Charlene has lived with Anna

since she was two.

I have known Charlene since the day she was born.

I started thinking more about

all these gifts that were coming,

so I eventually messaged Sue.

Anna's foster daughter, Charlene, messages me.

Charlene is telling me not to trust her mom.

She lies.

At this point, I did not believe Charlene.

I was horrible to Charlene.

Sue was still in denial about it.

[Charlene] Sue didn't believe me. Asked me to prove it.

So I said to her, "Sit outside the house,

and you will see that she doesn't go to work.

She doesn't get off her bum.

And then she blocked me and told me to go away.

[Das] At first, when Sue heard what Charlene was saying,

she didn't believe her.

It feels like she was in denial.

The thought or the concept of Anna

having betrayed her for so long was so painful,

that Sue would rather reject it.

And in her mind,

it made more logical sense to her at that time

that perhaps Charlene wasn't telling the truth,

rather than her best friend of many years, Anna.

When Sue didn't believe me,

I did feel upset and betrayed,

'cause I had no reason to lie.

But I just thought,

she's gonna have to learn on her own.

And she did.

[Sue] At this point,

it felt like a relationship.

It maybe could get...

...better, when he gets better.

[Cusack] Sue was so far invested

in this quest to save Ste,

that she was completely blinded by it.

With the amount of cards and letters,

that were arriving on Sue's door, from Ste,

she had no qualms in upping the ante.

Sending more money. Getting more credit cards.

Taking out loans. Borrowing money.

All the time,

she didn't confide in anybody else what she was doing.

It got to the point where I couldn't do it.

It was...

...too much.

I had had enough.

I was done.

I had a breakdown.

My mental health got worse.

I went suicidal.

I got to the point, I told my counselor

I was going home to commit suicide.

[Cusack] In quiet moments,

she would look at her bank statements,

and realize the size of the hole that she was in.

She'd race to the door when the postman

put the letters through the door, just on the off chance

that her mom or her dad might see her bank statements.

She was in over £100,000 in debt.

Credit cards maxed out.

Personal loans.

And she'd been to a pay day lender.

So she was really up to her eyes in debt.

I don't eat.

I don't sleep.

I don't speak.

At this point, I am living on coffee and fags.

At this point,

Anna is still messaging me about Ste.

Ste is pinching her phone

and sending me messages.

I'm answering them.

I've now got no job.

I can't.

It's just too hard to get up, let alone go to work.

[Sue] She rang where she worked,

who had never heard of Anna. Did not know her.

This woman had worked there,

or so I thought, for 10 years.

She was, so I thought,

a manager of three wards.

So if she's not worked there,

what else is she lying about?

She's supposed to be in America.

They're in Skelmersdale.

Funny, that.

Not America, then.

At this point, it is the wake-up call.

I needed to pull my head out my arse.

I then continued

to carry on as normal.

While...

...we all dig in,

to find out what else she lied about.

[Das] Sometimes when people come to this realization,

that they've been duped, or lied to,

they want to confront the perpetrator.

But in some cases, like Sue,

they might take a step back,

and this could be for a number of reasons.

It could be because they're actually quite frightened

of the confrontation itself,

or it could be there's still a degree of denial.

They still don't want to accept this horrific betrayal.

[Cusack] Anna's husband, Steven Bonner,

had separated from Anna.

So he knocks on Sue Hughes' door,

to ask her for the key,

because he knew

that Sue had a key to Anna's house.

Steven wants to get into the house,

to get his passport.

Let him in the house, I goes in with him.

At this point, Steven has told me

he's got some letters and cards that he found.

The letters were letters that I had wrote to Steve Lucas,

cards that I had sent to Steve Lucas.

Cards that had been sprayed with Sue's perfume.

Valentine's cards, and knick-knacks,

they were all being stored in a box.

It was just a nightmare.

It just somehow made it all real.

[Das] It then became apparent to Sue

that she wasn't being scammed by Ste.

Ste didn't even exist.

This was all a web of lies,

created by her best friend, Anna.

To me, that suggests that Anna

is potentially a very dangerous person.

She completely lacks empathy.

She has no moral boundaries.

And there's no low that she won't stoop to.

[Sue] I was gutted.

As far as I was aware,

she'd never lied to me.

We now know different.

I goes on Births, Deaths and Marriages.

And Ste Lucas

his birthday,

nobody is born on that day.

With that name.

So this person who I know as Ste Lucas

does not exist.

I was devastated.

I just couldn't believe it.

Then, all the lies started to unravel.

When I got the letters,

that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Das] Anna and her husband Steve are separated,

and Steve knows that Sue has a key,

so he needs this key to get into the house,

so he can get his own passport.

It's at that point

that he tells Sue

that all of these letters that she'd previously written,

hadn't even been forwarded on to anybody.

I then gets a text message.

How dare I take a stranger into her house,

you know, and she's going to the police,

blah, blah, blah.

[Das] Then, Anna threatens Sue

with legal action for breaking into her house.

This really indicates that she's being very defensive,

and at that moment in time,

she feels like her back is against the wall,

doing almost anything to get out of this situation.

[Cusack] That's the point at which Sue goes to the police,

and that's what she did.

[Sue] I have never spoken to that woman since that day.

That was June 2020.

I will never speak to her again.

She lied from day one of friendship.

Which is why there were no triggers.

And there was nothing different.

I had no reason not to believe her.

Twenty-five years of friendship, gone.

When we look at it from Sue's perspective,

this is a huge mental shift.

So I imagine there must have been a lot of emotional turmoil.

She must have been utterly distressed, upset,

she's gone from potentially being

in a relationship with a man

to not even knowing if he exists,

within a matter of moments.

She might even have been questioning other aspects of her life,

you know, what's going on? What's real, and what's not?

I'm sure when Anna's first approached by the police,

she must have realized that her whole

web of deceit is about to collapse.

She must have been quite panicked at the time.

But even then,

even when she's being backed into a corner,

she still tries to blame Sue.

She says that Sue owes her money through holidays,

and this is the only way that she could get it back.

So, to me, this suggests this sense of desperation.

And we see this quite typically in some fraudsters.

They like to play the victim.

They will blame anybody but themselves.

I didn't think that the police

or anybody would believe me,

because of the way Anna did it.

She used my feelings, for Ste.

She used my good nature.

She manipulated me, isolated me.

When Sue had told me what the extent

it had gone to, I was quite shocked.

I didn't think my mom could be so cruel.

I was gobsmacked.

I have not come across

a fraud in which two best friends,

with a longevity of 20-plus years,

have ultimately ended in this way,

in this type of fraud.

When you have victims like Sue going to court,

to see their perpetrator brought to justice,

it can be quite a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, there can be something quite satisfying,

and cathartic about seeing justice served,

in front of your eyes.

But on the other hand, it can be quite upsetting.

You're re-triggering all those memories

of being violated, all that betrayal,

that happened over so many years.

[Atherton] One unusual aspect of the case

was that Charlene Bonner, Anna Bonner's daughter,

was willing to give evidence against her.

And it's unusual for a family member

to be willing to give evidence

against another family member.

When I decided to help Sue with the investigation

by giving a statement to the police,

and telling the police exactly

what I'd seen in the house, the gifts,

it was upsetting, because obviously, it was my mom.

Obviously, I'd realized how much she'd hurt Sue

and how broken she was.

And I thought, "She can't do that to anybody else."

Charlene, I got back in contact with her.

Because I felt I owed her an apology.

We are now closer than ever.

Every single day we were in court,

Charlene was there.

I thank God for her every day.

Without her, I wouldn't be here.

Charlene said she would never be a witness for her mom.

She would be a witness for me.

[Atherton] The Economic Crime Team of Merseyside Police

had done a fantastic job in gathering the evidence.

It was strong.

Charlene Bonner was willing to give evidence.

And there was no doubt in my mind.

[Sue] Do I think it's enough?

No. I don't.

I had mixed emotions, putting Anna away.

It needed to be done.

She needed to be punished for what she'd done.

[Das] Anna clearly is a mean, selfish and egocentric woman.

She would go to any lengths,

she knows no boundaries,

to try and defraud her best friend.

[Sue] The fraud, yeah. It's taken my money.

It does not account for the emotional side,

the mental health side,

what it's done to my physical health.

[Das] Objectively, it might be easy for some people

to look at this scenario

and put some of the blame on Sue.

But I think, actually,

this just indicates her natural personality.

She's altruistic. She's generous.

She has a huge heart.

She's obviously somebody that's quite caring.

The blame needs to go on Anna.

This is the person that's been manipulating her best friend,

that has been betraying her trust for so many years.

[Sue] A lot of the cards, and letters,

and gifts that I received,

I burnt.

The locket, I threw in the Mersey.

I don't want nothing to do with that part of my life.

I do think about the bouncer

who I thought was Ste Lucas.

I will never know his proper name.

I will never know if,

you know, he got married, had kids,

changed his job, done whatever.

I, I will never know.

[Das] Something that really stands out to me

about Anna's personality is her ability to lie.

She's very skillful at it,

she did it almost right from the beginning of this scenario,

telling Sue that Ste was her uncle.

It seems that later on, throughout this scenario,

there were, there was reasons for her lies.

It didn't seem to be

what I would consider pathological lying.

She was lying for a purpose, which is part of the fraud.

[Cusack] It certainly is the behavior pattern of a compulsive liar.

But something a little bit more sinister than a compulsive liar.

I think it's the behavior pattern, uh, of a psychopath.

I think that Anna is an extremely selfish person,

who has put aside years of friendship

with somebody she perceives

to be quite naive and vulnerable,

and she's pulled at her heartstrings.

She knows how to target one particular area,

that Sue is quite sensitive about,

which is her potential romantic life.

So she really will go to any depths,

she'll make up any lies,

she'll lie about family members,

she will create fake phone calls,

she will write fake messages,

she'll do whatever it takes to extract money

from her cash cow over a long period of time.

[Sue] It was a hard, long journey,

to get to this point.

I'm still in recovery.

She has been punished,

in my opinion, not enough.

I thought she was a friend.

Yeah, no.

Friends like that, who needs enemies?

Charlene is...

...my niece.

Charlene's always called me Aunty.

But yeah, our relationship is great.

We have not argued

since we reconnected.

My relationship with Sue today is very good.

We are, she is like the mom I've never had.

And we are very close,

and she loves my children like they are her own.

Honestly, our relationship's great.