Pensioner Spends Life Savings: If something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is – that’s generally the way it goes. Well, it certainly was that way for a 60-year-old woman who ended up losing £90,000 ($116,000) after marrying her 26-year-old Sri Lankan toy boy.
Diane De Zoysa, from Scotland, met Priyanjana De Zoysa in 2016 and only seven months later she had married him, sold her home in East Lothian, moved to Sri Lanka, had a house built for the pair and bought her new husband a minibus.
She thought she was living the high-life, but in May last year gangsters found out Priyanjana had come into money, before attempting to blackmail him and eventually gunning him down. Diane was left not only a widow, but essentially a prisoner in the home she’d built.
To make things worse, she found documents that proved her husband was married to another woman – she’d been completely and utterly used.
Diane told the Daily Record: “I just couldn’t stay there any longer. I kind of feel stupid now that I didn’t listen to my family and my friends because they said it was just about the money. I thought he did really love me but obviously he didn’t.”
The ex-council worker ended up stuck in the home she’d built after her in-laws refused to help her sell the house, and ended up with thousands of pounds worth of debt after helping support her husband’s family after his murder.
She said: “My husband’s family virtually had me under house arrest for two years. I couldn’t go anywhere – not even to the beach.
“They weren’t happy I was leaving and put a complaint in to the local police because I was leaving with all my property, but I managed to get away to stay with friends. They weren’t happy because they wouldn’t get any more money from me.”
Eventually, she managed to escape her in-laws and fled to stay with friends before finally making the 20-hour flight back to her home in the UK.
After investing all her life-savings into what was meant to be a fairly idyllic retirement in a sunny country with her young husband, she now has returned to wintery Scotland.
Diane explained she’s now attempting to rebuild her life back in the UK, saying: “I have nothing and still owe my credit card £4,000. I’m still trying to pay that off. It’s just impossible.
“I will have to try to find work. I can’t live on my pension here – it’s not enough. But I’m just glad to be home.”
