Two scammers allegedly duped a woman into sending her lover £10,000 stuffed in a teddy bear to pay for a helicopter to get him from an oil rig.
The victim is said to have first been contacted on Facebook in October last year by a man who claimed he was working offshore.
After building up trust, he persuaded her to send more than £3,000 in Apple gift cards over a period of time, insisting they were needed to top up his internet so they could keep in touch.
But the deception escalated when he told her he needed £10,000 hidden inside a teddy bear to fund a helicopter evacuation from the rig. The woman even took out a loan to cover the cost.
The alleged plot came to light only when the package sent to an address in the Midlands was intercepted in the post and flagged to the authorities after staff noticed how heavy the toy was.
