Lawyer still fighting to reclaim £1m from ‘conman’ lover 10 years on

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A high-flying lawyer who handed vast sums of money to her “confidence trickster” ex-lover is still trying to claw back more than £1 million over a decade after they split, the High Court was told.

Moira O’Hara, 56, was “deeply in love” with film director Paul Markham and started giving him money just weeks after they first met. He promised to pay her back with profits from a French film project, but was later exposed as a “charming and convincing” conman who used the money to buy a fine art collection. Mr Markham, now 75, was ordered in 2009 to pay back the money but still owes more than £1 million, the court was told.

In their latest legal battle, Mr Markham claimed Miss O’Hara was holding onto £900,000 worth of his possessions, including an 18th century Chinese pot. But Mr Justice Males threw out the case on Tuesday as an “abuse of process”, accusing Mr Markham of putting “fanciful” values on his property and using the courts to “harass” Miss O’Hara, once married to a judge. 

She met Mr Markham while doing voluntary work at a citizen’s advice bureau in 1999, and they lived together between 2003 and 2005. 

In 2009 Judge Philip Raynor QC described Mr Markham as a “convincing and effective confidence trickster” as he rejected his claim that Miss O’Hara had given him money as gifts.

Mr Markham claimed the cash was in return for business advice, emotional support and help in looking after her three children, but Judge Raynor  dismissed this as “untrue”, “fiction” and “unbelievable”. Mr Markham was ordered to pay back £850,000, plus nearly £300,000 in interest which has continued to build since then, and also hand over a £1 million property in Notting Hill which he held on trust for Miss O’Hara.

“Her conduct was extraordinary but she was deeply in love with Mr Markham,” said Judge Raynor. 

“I find that love and Mr Markham’s charm, persuasion and lies clouded her reason and common sense.”

Mr Markham lost an appeal against the ruling and was hit with an asset freezing order, but has only handed back a fraction of the money in the following years. 

“His conduct is obsessive and part of a wider campaign to cause distress to Miss O’Hara,” said her barrister, Daisy Brown.

Ruling on the latest case, Mr Justice Males said: “It is quite clear he has no intention of paying anything to Miss O’Hara.” The judge added that Mr Markham, who has no known address and claims to have no assets, may be ordered to stop making future “meritless” court applications against Miss O’Hara.