A mother-of-three is stranded in the Dominican Republic after her toyboy husband whom she met on Facebook allegedly conned her out of her life savings.
Claire Alcantara, 46, from Dudley, West Midlands, fell for student Franklin Alcantara, who is 12 years her junior, after they connected online in 2013.
Despite her daughters’ warnings, the former teaching assistant moved him into her home and even ditched her British passport to become an Irish citizen and secure him a spousal visa.
After two years she sold up and moved to his home country in the Caribbean and claims to have funded the renovation of his family’s home.
She said she bought Franklin a £10,000 Jeep and pumped money into their ‘joint account’, which she says later transpired to be solely in his name.
Claire Alcantara, 46, from Dudley, West Midlands, fell for Franklin Alcantara, who is 12 years her junior, after they connected online in 2013
After announcing he was going to be working away for several months, Franklin disappeared – and is now living illegally in the UK with another woman.
Meanwhile Claire is stuck in the Dominican Republic ‘penniless and heartbroken’, with no money to pay for a ticket home.
She told the Sunday Mirror: ‘I spent all my money on Franklin and can’t afford the flight. I should never have sacrificed a thing for him.’
Claire told how she and Franklin began messaging on Facebook after he liked one of her photos.
Having just come out of a ‘terrible’ divorce, she described him as ‘good-looking’ with the ‘body of a god’ and they started talking on Skype daily.
After six months, Claire applied for a tourist visa for Franklin to visit the UK, but her application was rejected.
Despite her daughters’ warnings, former teaching assistant Claire moved Franklin (pictured left) into her home and even ditched her British passport to become an Irish citizen and secure him a spousal visa
Instead she flew to the Caribbean for a month, where she claims she began spending money on doing up his family home.
The couple got married in the Dominican Republic in October 2013 – despite Claire’s adult daughters warning her against it.
After receiving a series of rejections to bring Franklin to Britain by immigration, Claire decided to apply for an Irish passport – the country of her father’s birth.
She told how she was advised UK law would override EU law, so she opted to give up her British citizenship to became an EU citizen living in the UK, meaning Franklin was granted a UK visa as the spouse of an EU worker.
Claire moved her husband into her home in June 2014 and opened a joint account in the Dominican Republic to fund the building of a flat on top of her father-in-law’s house, costing £15,000.
The couple moved to the Caribbean for good in December 2017, with Claire selling her home in the UK.
Claire moved her husband into her home in June 2014 and opened a joint account in the Dominican Republic (pictured: stock image) to fund the building of a flat on top of her father-in-law’s house, costing £15,000
In March 2018, after a series of rows with Franklin, Claire contacted the British Embassy for advice and was informed their joint account was in her husband’s name – which she said caused her to faint with shock.
When she confronted him, she said he told her it was a misunderstanding, but days later announced his plans to work abroad.
When three months became six, Claire got suspicious and investigated, only to discover her husband had moved to the UK and set up home with another woman.
She is now living in a shack with a new boyfriend in Santo Domingo, working a ‘very low-paid job’, after Franklin’s family allegedly evicted her for reporting him to immigration.
Franklin told the Sunday Mirror he is due to be deported next month, adding that he had a good relationship with Claire until they moved to the Dominican Republic because she ‘couldn’t live with her daughter’.
‘I wanted to stay in England,’ he said, adding that Claire was the one who suggested they renovated his father’s home, at a cost of £6,000.
He went on to admit he did lie about going to Punta Cana to work when he returned to the UK, claiming Claire would have refused to go with him because it’s ‘too cold’.
Franklin said his new girlfriend dumped him after Claire got in touch with her and refuted her claim she spent £40,000 on him, adding that he had a house and a job but now his ex has ‘ruined everything’.
He said they bought the car together, insisted he gave her £3,000 back after their split, and denied the joint account was only in his name.
‘She spent all the money but not on me,’ Franklin told the publication.