Police seek con man Dwayne Keith Gardner

Police in Alpharetta, Georgia, have asked the public for assistance in tracking down Dwayne Keith Gardner, who has a history of conning women. Here’s a report from Fox TV in Atlanta:

Police say Dwayne Keith Gardner travels the southeast claiming to be an attorney for an NFL team, a former navy seal or a retired naval officer. He targets single older women by conning the women into lending him large sums of money.

Gardner also steals physical items from his victims. After committing the theft, he flees the area, say police.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for felony theft against Gardner. Gardner is believed to be in the Metro Atlanta region. Police believe there are other victims of his crimes who have not come forward. Police are asking anyone who has been a victim of this activity to come forward to file a police report.

If anyone knows the location of Dwayne Keith Gardner, they are urged to contact the Alpharetta Dept. of Public Safety’s tip line at 678-297-6307.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this news item. In fact, I was shocked. In the five years that I’ve been running Lovefraud, I’ve never seen the police actually try to locate someone who goes around taking money from women. Usually, the authorities can’t be bothered with sweetheart scams.

But this man has left a trail of destruction all over the country. Five different complaints are filed on the Ripoff Report website about Dwayne Keith Gardner, aka DeAndre Roche. Here are excerpts:

May 10, 2007
Woman from El Paso, Texas

Dwayne Keith Gardner or DeAndre Roche claims to have a trust fund, to be an attorney/sports & entertainment agent, retired baseball player (Devil Rays, Rangers, Padres), former Navy SEAL, says he is of Creole decent, born in Paris, France (actually born in New Jersey). He’ll say his mother Isabella, a federal judge and his sister Joy, a doctor, were murdered November 2001 and case not solved. Out of all this only the name Dwayne Gardner is true.

He married me in September 2004 and by late October moved us to San Antonio, TX where he claimed to be opening a restaurant and a hotel. All he did while there was set up women to send him money and rip off “employees” from Georgia whom he’d promised employment in Texas.

He corresponded with a “business partner” in Las Vegas and told her I was a cousin’s ex-wife he was helping out ”¦ In December 2004 he left for Las Vegas again on business, I later learned he married his business partner although he was already married to me. ”¦ I searched his so called private papers there were letters from other “wives” in Florida, Louisiana, and Tennessee, in addition to several photos of women in varying stages of undress, these I destroyed. After leaving San Antonio I learned he was wanted on a felony arrest warrant by the Chattanooga, TN authorities.

Report #248132

March 13, 2008
Elaine of Charlotte, North Carolina

Dwayne Gardner and I were married August 22, 2004 ”¦ He had claimed after we were married that we were going to purchase this home, to which he had me going out and checking out home. He then found a brand new home with a price ticket of $1,357,800. Dwayne never once gave up a dime, saying the money would come from the family trust funds.

After a few weeks of Dwayne’s promises I finaly told the builder to forget it. Cause Dwayne would disappear. And then reappear, claiming he had to go to Vegas for client relationship dealing.

Now finding that not only was he married to me that August, but got married again that following month to someone else ”¦ Now seeing this report on him and the woman to whom he had married prior to me, and now finding that he is currently locked up in Tennessee.

Report #317755

December 30, 2008
Angie from New York, New York

This man will do and say anything to get a woman, any woman to marry him. Ladies, he will say he has never been married (a lie), that he is an attorney and his client list includes past and present sports stars (lie), that he is a retired baseball player (lie), that he was once a Navy SEAL (lie) that he manages existing and up and coming musical talent (lie) and that he has a multi million dollar trust fund at his disposal (lie).

If he picks you up in a vehicle you can be sure that it is not his, most likely it belongs to his latest “wife”. This man has no income of his own and no desire to. He will be perfectly happy to spend yours or anyone else whom he is able to convice that he is handiling some sort of legal work for them.

Early on in your courship he will take you on a tour of high end homes for sale and will actually negotiate a contract to “purchase” one. He’ll tell the real estate agent that his “lawyers” will wire the full purchase amount to an escrow account within 3-5 days of the buyer submitting a signed contract; of course this never happens. He finds some reason to “back out ” of the deal and promises to purchase a more suitable home.

He’ll do the same with car dealerships. He picks out a luxury vehicle for himself and his new wife. The dealer writes up the purchase agreements and patiently waits for the money to be wired within 3-5 days. Again the deal falls through. In the mean time you find yourself supporting him and yourself; this guy likes to eat and he likes his meals on the high end (salmon steak, talapia, sirloin, rib roast etc.)
Report #406209

April 27, 2009
Angeline, in Miami, Florida

This man contacted me on an online dating site. He left me his phone number and asked me to call and talk to him. During our conversation he said he was an attorney who handled clients in professional sports and the entertainment and music industry. He seemed very nice over the phone so I agreed to meet. He showed up driving a late model SUV. After about a 3o minute conversation his cell phone rang and said he had to leave as a client needed to see him.

A couple of days later he picked me up and asked me to accompany him as he shopped for a new house for himself as he was new to the area. I was blown away by the homes he was considering, very high-end real estate. At one property he met with the agent and made an offer to pay the full asking price, filled out all the necessary paperwork and promised to wire the funds to an account. A day or two later he took me along as he searched for an other vehicle saying that he had decided to give his current one to a relative. On the way home he asked me to marry him. When I asked why he was in such a rush he said he knew that I was the one for him and he did not want to wait any longer.

To make a long story short; the SUV he was driving when I first met him was not his but belonged to the woman with whom he was living and she was the one who called him during our first meeting not a client. The luxury house he was buying was all a sham, he never followed through with the deal.

He has done all this so many times in the past and will continue to do this for as long as he can get away with it. He has been behind bars for the past 2 1/2 years and is anxious to get started again.

Report #447024

June 2, 2009
Scammed Realtor in St. Petersburg, Florida

Dwayne Gardner was at work in the St Pete area during mid June 2009. He was looking at high end homes and put a “cash” offer in on one. Problem is, he just couldn’t get the money out of his Grandfather’s estate. “The damn lawyers and accountant kept jerking him around.”

This is the guy who scammed me. I had to be the guy to tell his latest “wife,” whom I had been in contact with, that she had been defrauded. Also confirmed with his previous “wife” that he was a con man.

Report #457665

September 1, 2009
Mobile County Alabama

Dwayne Keith Gardner, 46 of Hudson, Florida, and a 52-year-old woman from Slidell, Louisiana.

Public record for marriages

So now, a year after the most recent marriage that I could find, the police are after Dwayne Keith Gardner. I hope they find him.

More importantly, I hope this means that police will start to take cases of  bigamy and marriage fraud seriously.