Man's death prompts scam warning

Police warned people to be cautious of parting with money

Police are warning people to be aware of an internet scam which is believed to have led to a man's suicide.

Phillip Hunt, 58, of Grimsby, was killed after being hit by a train near to the A63 flyover on Hessle.

Detectives said inquiries had shown Mr Hunt had run up £60,000 of debt after meeting someone claiming to be a Nigerian woman on a dating website.

Det Ch Insp Danny Snee, of British Transport Police, said: "Criminals involved in these scams are ruthless."

An inquest into Mr Hunt's death is due to take place in February, but police said they were releasing details now in order to warn others.

Police said Mr Hunt, who died in August, had left a note and a number of documents relating to the financial scam.

Mr Hunt took out a number of loans, overdrafts and also re-mortgaged his house to finance the alleged expenses

Det Ch Insp Danny Snee

He joined the dating site in December 2008 and had swapped e-mails, photos and text messages with the woman.

Mr Snee said: "It is then understood the female claimed she had a substantial amount of money that needed transporting to the UK which required Mr Hunt's assistance.

"He provided large sums of money to a number of parties to pay alleged expenses to facilitate this.

"Mr Hunt took out a number of loans, overdrafts and also re-mortgaged his house to finance the alleged expenses.

"Sadly, by August 2009, the accumulation of Mr Hunt's debts, and the realisation that he may have been entrapped in a financial scam, is likely to have contributed to his death."

Mr Snee added: "People are to be warned that if they are asked to part with money with promise of future financial gain, and it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

"Criminals involved in these scams will extract as much money as possible from their victims with complete disregard of the devastating effects this can have on people's lives."