TWO CONMEN who prayed on vulnerable women with a £35,000 online dating scam have been convicted.

Sidney Ochouba, 40, and Busayo Oladapo, 38, created fake accounts to chat to seven victims between 2014 and 2015.

They posed as men working in Syria for the World Health Organisation (WHO) that became stranded with no money.

The pair tricked their female victims into sending cash to supposed “diplomats” to help bring them home.

They would ask for further payments to be sent citing a variety of problems with the journey.

However, the money landed in bank accounts liked to the fraudsters.

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Ochouba and Oladapo were found guilty by a jury at Glasgow Sheriff Court charged with operating the fraud worth £35,000 between June 2014 and February 2015.

They were also convicted of acquiring criminal property as a result of a fraudulent scheme.

Co-accused, Christine Murray, 58, was acquitted of all the charges.

The court heard Jackie Ballie, 60, a widow of four years, met a nutritionist Jack McDud, 53 on dating site Plenty More Fish.

She was told he worked in Syria for the WHO and needed money for a flight home to the UK.

Mrs Ballie, a retired saleswoman, sent several payments totalling £7,044 to “diplomats” who appeared to work for the WHO.

They told her McDud was due a £36,000 inheritance which would cover the cost of his flight.

Mrs Ballie got suspicious when McDud didn’t return and she was continually asked for money.

She said: “No one could change what I had with my husband but that’s why I went on the site as I didn’t want to lead a lonely life.

“I naively believed everything he said - there were emails and even a story and he caught me at a very vulnerable state.”

Joyce Clark, 60, sent £1,300 while grieving for her father to a man she also believed was working in Syria.

She said: “I had just lost my father who I cared for for five years and I was holding down a full time job.

“I was not in the best place at the time.”

Melanie Kay, 49, told jurors that she sent her son’s £12,000 university fund to a man posing as a nutritionist in Syria.

She added: “It was a spiral, my savings went. I felt stupid that someone got one over me this way and I get angry that someone could to this to me.”

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Grainne McCaffrey, 50, a clerical officer from Ireland, was also hooked in by the con.

She sent five payments totalling £6,000 to an alleged diplomat and was continually asked for more cash.

When she discovered the scam, Miss McCaffrey said she felt “physically ill.”

Coleen Wallman, 69, a retiree, paid £1,400 to the man she was speaking to on a “Christian dating site" for shares in his company.

She was later asked to pay £5,899 for his flight to the UK but this was intercepted by her bank.

Hilary Robinson, 48, said she was “embarrassed” when she found out she was a victim of the fraud.

She had sent payments to a bank account linked to Ochouba who would later tell police he painted her house.

Miss Robinson said: “I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why he would say that - it’s a 100% lie.”

Prosecutors claimed Murray was part of the scam and was tried as an accused person.

Some of the money sent by the other victims were put into her bank account.

The court watched a police interview from May 2017 with Murray during the eight day trial.

Murray claimed she was put onto a dating site by one of her friends in November 2013.

She later met a man on the site claiming to be a doctor working for the Red Cross.

Murray claimed he was stationed in “Singapore, Milan and the Australian outback”.

She told officers that she paid numerous amounts ranging from £50 to £1000 between November 2013 and July 2014.

Murray said: “I trusted him and I did believe him.

“He told me his wee girl had cancer and I felt bad and now I feel like a fool and I’m so stupid.

“I was living myself without anything just enough for gas, electric and food.

“I was gullible and he probably knew it.”

Sentence was deferred until next month by Sheriff Paul Crozier for background reports.

Ochouba, from Glasgow’s Gorbals area and Oladapo, from Govan, were remanded in custody and not bailed.