However that was just the start of her nightmare.
Weeks of manipulation adopted, together with threats of blackmail. After which, a prolonged authorized course of.
Collins, 33, pleaded responsible to 24 fees together with monetary deception offences, fraud and theft and was sentenced to 22 months in jail on Friday.
He stole greater than $100,000 from three girls he met on-line from January 2020 to January 2021.
Collins remained silent when he appeared by video hyperlink from jail in Melbourne Magistrates Court docket on Friday.
The court docket heard he had simply accomplished an 18-month neighborhood work order for related offending - stealing cash off girls he met on-line and utilizing it for playing - when he started stealing from a lady on January 3, 2020.
The lady, who spoke to AAP, stated Collins had left her bodily, mentally, emotionally and financially "ruined".
"It was a nightmare," she stated.
She met Collins on Tinder, the place he glided by the title CJ.
They chatted about sport and he stated he was an expert gambler.
She invited him over to observe some cricket, which was when the scamming started.
Collins inspired her to place cash on a "positive guess" and satisfied her to open new on-line betting accounts.
Then they went to a Richmond pub, the place Collins sat in a darkish nook along with her cellphone after she went to the dancefloor.
Inside 20 minutes he had transferred $96,000 from her financial institution accounts and moved $72,000 into betting accounts.
After they went residence collectively, he stole her bank card whereas she was sleeping and used it to pay for a taxi after which drinks at a strip membership in Melbourne CBD.
When she confronted him, he manipulated her and threatened to ship a harmful video of her if she went to police.
He despatched her messages pretending to be his mom, advised her she owed cash to bikies and threatened suicide.
She turned frightened, nervous and confused.
"That confusion and sense of urgency, that is not a situation that I've ever been in, and you do not know how you may cope with it," she advised AAP.
She's been unable to get well $45,000 of the cash he stole from her and has spent virtually $15,000 on attorneys because the authorized course of dragged on.
"It is had such a detrimental affect on me emotionally, mentally, bodily, because it all occurred," she stated.
"I am a senior government, I am avenue savvy, no manner did I ever suppose this may occur to me and have the continued long-term results it has."
One other sufferer, a single mom of 4, advised the court docket she needed to survive on handouts for months after the offending.
She has misplaced belief in males and has not dated anybody since she met Collins.
Justice of the Peace Cecily Hollingworth described Collins' behaviour as "brazen and crafty" and stated it confirmed his lack of respect for girls.
"You possibly can have stopped, you may have desisted at any stage however you continued to defraud these girls," she stated.
"You exploited girls that you simply knew had restricted means."
Collins should spend 16 months in jail earlier than he turns into eligible for parole. He has already served greater than 10 months in pre-sentence detention.
He has paid again $10,000 to the court docket.
Readers in search of help and details about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.