A woman from Hoogvliet is on trial for embezzling €1.1m from her employer which she sent to man she met on the internet, the AD reports.

The 51-year-old, who worked for DIY firm Karwei for 32 years and worked her way up to a position of trust in the firm’s admin office, met the man on Facebook in 2015 and fell in love with him. She also claimed to have been blackmailed over a nude photo, the AD says.

Requests for money initially put her off  but soon after she started sending him money, first her own, then money from a loan. She then stole company money by changing the account number on payments to suppliers to her own.

‘He was very kind and sweet and my marriage wasn’t going that well so I needed love and affection,’ Hannelore S told the court. Her final transfer to Africa before the bank discovered the fraud was €70,000. The man said he needed money for operations for him and his family.

S claimed to have no idea what the man looked like, having only seen his bandaged head at the time of his alleged operation, and to have skyped with him just once in two and a half years. She spoke to him on the phone every day but had no address because ‘he couldn’t give me one’.

Breaking down in tears the woman said she kept thinking the man would repay the money but that she had been gullible. She denied she had made the whole thing up to start a new life elsewhere with the money.

The case was interrupted on a technicality and will be continued at a later date.