BBC Documentaries

Catch Her if You Can (2020x196)

: 03, 2020

Mariam Mola is addicted to Louis Vuitton, Fendi and flexing on social media. Her Instagram feed is a love letter to luxury London, from the velvet booths of Soho restaurants to the bling outfitters of Hatton Garden jewellery boutiques. She seems to have it all. But this self-made girl boss from London’s docklands is actually a career con artist who has served time all over Europe. Mariam’s scams haven’t just targeted credit card companies and luxury boutiques. Over the years, she’s also finessed close friends, colleagues and impressionable teenagers who took her at her word. And then she encountered Tamara. When Tamara found a suspicious invoice addressed to her husband, she knew something was up. She discovered that her husband had transferred large sums of money to Mariam from their joint account. And she soon realised Mariam had myriad other money-making schemes, too. So began a dogged pursuit of Mariam. Using a fake alias to gather information, Tamara assembled a group of Mariam’s victims. Together, they exposed Mariam, who went to prison on fraud charges. But it wasn’t over. Every time they thought they’d got her, Mariam came back and pulled off an ever bigger scam than before. In 2019, Tamara discovered that Mariam was now a senior pastor with a notorious church: SPAC Nation. SPAC Nation is under investigation by police and the charity commission. It claims it is helping disadvantaged kids – but former members say that its leaders, including Mariam, encourage young congregants to take out loans and give huge sums to the church. In this film, Tamara joins forces with Mariam’s other victims to expose her as the ruthless fraudster she really is.