There are Oxford dons and then there are Oxford cons. Nicola Boardman, 34, was the latter after bilking her parents of more than £250,000 by convincing them she was a student at Oxford University. She continued to hit them up for money for research and travel that prosecutors allege was used for drugs, holidays and a secret wedding. Adding insult to injury, her parents, Frank and Marilyn, were not even invited to the wedding.
Boardman said that she was completing a potentially lucrative PhD in social sciences. The record suggests that Boardman became addicted to heroin as a teenager but was able to kick her habit and graduate from a Cornish college with a first-class social sciences degree. She was able to convince her parents that she was accepted into the PhD program and her father drove her to interviews as both Oxford and Cambridge — claiming to have won scholarships.
It is a heart-breaking story. One can understand how parents can be easy targets after believing that their daughter overcame earlier problems and was on a path of success. Even more gut-wrenching is that she convinced her father that he would be repaid and he retired early based on her false assurances that her published work would support him in retirement. There were false receipts and records and even a faked funeral for a stillborn child, including the scattering of ashes.
She admitted to all of the lies and pleaded guilty to one count of fraud. It is not clear how she was ultimately found out but her father filed a victim statement during sentencing that stated “I personally have been deprived of my retirement that I have worked hard for, for the last 40 years.”
It is chilling to read a record of such deceit of people who gave so much out of love for their child. The degree of emotional detachment needed for such a long history of lies and manipulation is enormous. She appears to have been captive to her addiction but one would have hoped that she would have a few moments of clarity where she could tell her parents the truth. As a parent, I cannot imagine the pain for her parents in not just being defrauded but to have one’s love and trust in a child abused in such a fashion.
Source: Guardian
Unknown, not unkown.
J bizarrely and oddly fantasizes about conducting jury selection–for a trial, as of yet, unkown–and then, has the audacity to call another delusional.
Hysterical.
Remind me on jury selection to root out delusional ppl like bam bam who claim A superior sixth sense.
J – so you will keep them on the jury if they have either a regular or defective sixth sense. Just not a superior sixth sense.
Paul
J just wants someone like himself–someone with no sense.
It’s the combination of mouth-breather slack-jaw and the stunned, deer-in-the-headlights pupil dilation, combined… that yell “yeah, not-very-bright druggie” to me, personally… sounds nasty, but as someone not blinded by having loved the little child that was, that’s what I see…
What or how one makes such observations. . .
If one is blessed with having complete use of all of the senses, and, unfortunately, not all of us are, then one should use and take full advantage of them. I said nothing of the gap in her teeth. I merely stated that she appears, in the photo, to be under the influence of some substance. I stand by that statement. If your sense of perception is not as sharp as mine, there’s not much that I can do to explain to you what or how makes such observations. You either have it or you don’t. Obviously, you don’t.
Bam bam that is gap teeth not meth teeth. There is nothing about her picture that screms drug user. She doesn’t even have an illuminatti lazy eye. Is it the complextion ( sp)? The hair cut (but kept up mind you)? Mascara but no eyeliner? Lipstick but no lip liner? Thin? …yey probably right at govt standards. How would she have to look, to look not like a drug user to you?
The fact is either she was clever enough to bilk her old man or he was stupid enough. Lets see his photo maybe he looks like a total duffe. Maybe he has dupe written on his forehead.
Bottomline the govt is probaby culpable bc they probably have laws like ours where college report cards aren’t allowed to be sent home…even if mom and dad are paying. He should sue the school…. but here there isn’t one!. Ha. And he never inquired? I feel bad for the folks….being so gullible but maybe if i saw their photo i wouldn’t…:) come on bam bam is that where we are….photo of fat lady means she eats too much must be a double couponer.
(music)
We don’t need no education!
We don’t need no thought control!
All in all, its just a …
Nuther blip in the road!
Since it was their daughter, unless they had a signed contract, I wonder how she was found guilty of fraud. She could have said that they simply gave it freely with no quid pro quo. It would be different if it were any non-relative, then I could see how there could be a successful prosecution. This is quite a bit harder I would think from a legal point of view. Maybe some lawyers could show me my error in this.
randyjet – since they are all adults and since they have no obligation to provide for her education therefore they were defrauded.
Maybe do some gene pool research and see how far back in generations this mentality goes. If it goes back to grandpa then sterilize her and her dad and mom. And any siblings.
Lars Vegan – both the Nazis and the US Health service were big on Eugenics. However, it has gone out of style. It is considered bad form to bring it up again. War crimes, etc.
Three generations of imbicels are enough. Imbicile? Imbecell? Stemcell? Three generations of idiots are enough. There I got that spulled right. Spull? Spell? Something here in this story smell? But sterilize both the defendant and her father and mother. If grandpa is still around then sterilize him. Society cannot afford more of this.
Her father testified against her at her sentencing!
Her father provided the genes and the sperm which created her.
Her father provided and lectured during her childhood the mindset she formed.
Her father allowed her to become a dope addict without intervening.
Her father retired early and blames her for his situation now.
Like father and son. Like father and daughter. There is no saving grace when pigs come to slaughter.
It is an amazing story but by the grace of God she did not yet die of dope overdose and by the amazing grace of father’s testimony she can go to jail instead of Yale.
Clearly, the drug addiction is connected to her actions. But, the crime that produced a direct victim here is the fraud. I am no advocate for drug use, but at some level we have to hold her accountable for her actions and the drugs didn’t defraud her parents, she did. I worry that blaming the drugs for this crime is similar to blaming a gun for some crime in which a gun was used.
I thought drug addiction was a victimless crime!
The fact that you are a stranger is what lets you see what her parents could not, and would not see, their love and hope for her, blinded all obvious red flags for anyone else.
A sad sad story.
I truly feel sorry for the parents–I do–but just one quick glance at the photo, provided along with the story, reveals the face of an individual so obviously under the influence of drugs. And, I’m a stranger. She looks just like a drug addict to me, and, given her prior history with substance abuse, I wonder about the parents and their faculties. While I am fully aware that mugshots are not glamour shots, couldn’t her parents tell that she was zoned out by simply observing her appearance and demeanor? Perhaps she attended school out of town, so the visits with her family were infrequent and the opportunity to personally observe the daughter was a rarity. Still, the poor parents may not be too swift if they consistently missed the most obvious of signs.
I had hoped to put faces to some of those who had cast those “Boaty McBoatface” votes… this piece perhaps reveals a second! lol