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cover art for Episode 523: Serial con-artist Samantha Cooke duped Kildare family

Crime World

Episode 523: Serial con-artist Samantha Cooke duped Kildare family

A serial fraudster was employed by a family in Kildare as a live in au pair after being outed on a hit podcast and in a series of newspaper articles as a conwoman.


Samantha Cooke managed to reinvent herself as child care worker Sadie Harris and lived for six months with the family while her real identity faced the eye of a publicity storm about a series of cons across Ireland.


Nicola speaks to journalist Mark Tighe of the Sunday Independent about the extraordinary story of a woman who keeps changing her name, look and background and who is currently gone dark somewhere in Ireland.


He tells her about her latest scam which terrified a young mother returning to work and about her colourful background as an artist, a writer and even a psychotherapist.

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