After he ‘ghosted’ her on a sugar daddy dating service, a gorgeous property manager sought to blackmail a wealthy businessman out of $150,000.
Rachel Roche, 40, was charged in 2020 with attempting to blackmail a Perth businessman after he abruptly stopped communicating with her earlier that year.
Due to a nationwide suppression order, the man’s identity cannot be revealed.
In late 2019, Roche said she was looking for a ‘father figure’ for her children on a popular dating service called Seeking Arrangement.
Sugar daddy dating site Seeking Arrangement is well-known.
According to Perth Now, Roche thought the businessman was unmarried and was surprised to see a photo of him wearing a wedding ring next to a WA minister in Perth’s District Court on Thursday.
When Roche asked the man about the woman in the photo, he verified it was his wife but stated that he wanted to divorce her soon.
Roche’s defense lawyer, Linda Black, stated, ‘She blindly believed him.’
The businessman, on the other hand, abruptly ‘ghosted’ (lost touch with) Roche.
Roche was upset, and she was sick with what she thought was a sexually transmitted disease from the man.
‘She was enraged, and of course, she acted badly, if not illegally,’ Ms Black said.
Roche launched her blackmail campaign against the businessman on January 3, sending nine threats to his work email address over the course of four days.
She demanded $150,000 from the man or she would make their romance public.
In addition, Roche ordered the man to pay an additional $50,000 for each day he missed her deadline.
She used the hashtag #metoo in one of the extortion emails.
Roche would not be imprisoned right away, according to Judge Vernon, but she should have known she was breaking the law.
‘You aren’t a child, and you should have known better.’ ‘And you clearly threatened him with something that was important to him — exposure,’ she added.
Roche was given an 18-month suspended sentence.