Brian Ellington fakes resumes, credentials and jobs so others will pay his bills
Editor’s note: Eve Hawkins of Queens ,New York, wrote the following story to describe how she was victimized by James Brian Ellington of North Carolina. The story expresses her frustration with inaction by the authorities. Hawkins published her own web page about Ellington on Nov. 7, 2006, and she was quickly contacted by other victims. Ellington was arrested by the New York City police on November 16, 2006.
This person is real. This happened to me from September 2005 until October 2006. I was barely able to drag myself away from him. It is my opinion that he will not stop his lying and conning/fraud behaviors unless the authorities physically stop him. Despite repeated complaints to the police and 200 very detailed and organized pages of statement/saved evidence, identifying information, etc., etc.-I handed everything to them on a silver platter-the New York City Police refuse to take any action whatsoever to stop this career liar.
I am an adult and I accept my own mistakes in allowing a bad person to be in my life and I accept my losses. I accept that the money is gone forever. I will deal with the consequences like the responsible adult that I am. What really bothers and haunts me is that he is out there and he will NOT stop. I think he will never stop, and the authorities are just flat out choosing to ignore it.
It is my opinion that this man targets women. Brian Ellington has no recent (as in the last two years) stable employment history and no recent rental history that I could find. These facts, combined with unemployment and no money, require a new relationship with a female who will pay or allow him to stay for free. A smart person looking to get away with these behaviors can easily find that when you combine sex with fraud and stealing, the police don’t care.
The New York Police have every opportunity to stop him. They could conduct a simple undercover operation if they do not feel they have enough evidence—I am convinced he will repeat the illegal fraudulent behavior—and they could very easily take him off the street.
But the New York Police Department refuses to act.
Sales executive
I met Brian (James Brian Ellington, offender number 0655054 in the North Carolina Department of Corrections) on the New York subway on a Friday night in late September, 2005. He was with his friend, Josh. Brian said a friendly hello, starting a conversation.
I normally ignore people who try to talk to me on the street or train. But he is extremely charming, very clean cut, professional looking, attractive and consistently positive, no matter what is happening. He gave me a business card that stated he was a sales executive for a technology company in New Jersey . I was not at the time looking to date anyone. I could see he was outgoing and close to my age, and since I am not from New York City , I was looking to expand my social circle.
I verified he worked at the company and sent him an e-mail the next week, on Monday. There were many red flags and bad signs over the first two months that I did not really understand or fully recognize. He gave me a fake address: Park Ave at 39 th street , one of six fake addresses I found that he gave to different people. I believe he was actually homeless and staying with friends and in hotel rooms; I have never found a valid address for the six months prior to him moving in with me. He always had some excuse as to why I couldn’t go to his place. He would be so late for a date, or say he was working late in New Jersey that I would go home to Queens, and then late in the evening he would arrive and we would go out in Queens.
I did not realize he was completely broke and living on his company credit card. He was hired at that company on September 15, 2005 and upon obtaining the company credit card, charged over $8,000 in personal expenses in less than a month. He did, months later, personally admit this to me. I thought he was a business partner (because he said so) and that he was very wealthy. He dresses expensively, showing me the $600 Versace shoes he just bought (presumably with the company credit card) and he was spending a lot of money at the time.
Sleeping on couches
Brian told me he graduated from college-a lie. He told me he had $80,000 in the bank and investments-a lie. He told me he bought his mother a car-a lie. He told me he owned a house in North Carolina , talking about the house repeatedly over several months, describing the size, shape, color, square footage, number of rooms, etc.-when he never owned any property at all. He would insist and swear up and down on his life that these lies are the truth until confronted with physical evidence proving that he was lying (I did a public records search). Then he would change lies, refuse to talk about it any further, or start verbally attacking me-blaming me, calling me crazy, telling me I could not question him/research him.
He used the company credit card to take out friends and probably other women (although I have no proof about the women). Then he got cash by telling the friends he lost his ATM card. I know this because he did it to me and I saw the behavior with his friends. Since he took us out, we felt we were really just contributing to the entertainment by giving him cash.
He would give his friends excuses as to why he could not sleep at home; he slept in anyone’s house or any friend’s hotel room that he could. I saw him staying in approximately four different hotel rooms; none were registered to him (I checked through front desk) and he told me he did not pay for the rooms. I cannot even count how many different friends’ couches he said he slept on over the course of a year.
Moving in fast
Brian kept wanting me to meet him at friends’ hotel rooms and I would say, “I will meet you at your apartment.” He would make an excuse like, “I have a client dinner on the West Side, my apartment is on the East Side and I don’t have time to go home.”
He wanted to move the relationship very fast. He wanted to come over and visit me at my apartment almost immediately. I don’t normally admit much more than that I live in Queens to anyone that I haven’t known or verified 100 percent. I violated a lot of my normal protective rules and I’ve never been able to explain why I allowed this. I don’t know how to explain how charming and convincing he is. I really liked him. I liked being with him and I wanted him to stay. Despite childish manners, he was a lot of fun.
Amex bill
Apparently Brian had also told his boss in New Jersey that he was wealthy and that he would pay all the Amex charges. I did not know what was going on at the time, but Brian told his boss that I was his financial manager and I was going to cash in some of Brian’s investments to pay the Amex bill. Brian called me at my office and said, “I’ll call you right back, just answer and say, ‘I’m taking care of it’ and that you’ll call me right back.”
I thought it was to buy time on a sales deal he was trying to make or something minor. But he called me back with his boss, John, on the line, allegedly to prove that I was his financial manager. I had no idea what was really happening and Brian refused to tell me.
Brian stood me up for our date that night. That is one point when I wish I had stuck with my gut instinct-I text messaged him not to contact me again.
The next day I telephoned Brian’s office to see if he had died. (I will give a person the benefit of the doubt in case they have been “hit by a bus.” I have never had anyone not show up because they were actually hurt, but still.) His boss, John, happened to answer the phone and said Brian had called in sick.
His boss recognized my voice from the day before, which of course I did not realize, and to my complete surprise knew my full name. He seemed eager to talk to me, although I was trying to not identify myself.
It was a very odd conversation. I was confused as to why John was so interested in talking to me. Finally I blurted out that Brian stood me up for a date, inadvertently blowing Brian’s lie that I was a financial manager. Brian’s boss realized that Brian was lying; he cut off Brian’s credit card and basically the next day Brian no longer had a job.
Brian told me he went on a last-minute business trip to Chicago and that was why he stood me up. Note that I had just been told by his office that Brian called in sick, contradicting his business trip story.
I didn’t say anything to Brian about it. Even though Brian couldn’t say what time he left, or why he didn’t know about his flight when he talked to me at noon that day, or why he hadn’t bothered to contact me to cancel the date, I was sucked in by his “Honey-baby I’m sorry sweetie” charm and I ignored it. Again, another point at which I have since regretted not breaking off contact.
Lost ATM card
About a week after the Amex got shut off, Brian called me saying he lost his wallet and all his identifying documents and ATM card and credit cards.
I am an intelligent, educated person. I have never lent anyone money or considered it. I thought, well I’ll just help him for a week and he’ll pay me back. Ha!
I was still in the dark as to what was actually happening, but of course it was all lies. He didn’t lose his wallet; he can’t GET a credit card because I believe he has ruined his credit. During the time he lived with me, he applied for three or four credit cards and received letters back that he was declined for bad debts. The letters were in my apartment briefly until he discarded them. There was also a letter from a telephone utility denying him phone service without a security deposit. Also, he does not carry any credit cards.
He had every excuse as to why he couldn’t get his identifying documents or access to his (empty) bank account. First the ATM card was going to the Manhattan office of the company he worked for (refusing to answer why it wasn’t going to his home address and despite the fact there WAS no Manhattan office that I could ever find and despite the fact that he was now unemployed). *sigh*. Then he said the ATM card got mailed to New Jersey , then his “evil” boss had it and kept standing Brian up in his attempts to collect it.