Claire Alcantara claims spent thousands of pounds on Franklin (Picture: Mirrorpix)

A British mum has been left ‘heartbroken and penniless’ after marrying a student from the Dominican Republic who she met online.

Claire Alcantara, 46, first started speaking to husband Franklin on Facebook in 2013, having just been through a ‘terrible’ divorce.

The pair soon started skyping everyday, and the mum-of-three became excited to meet her ‘good-looking’ new boyfriend, who she described as having ‘the body of a god’.

After six months she applied for a tourist via for him to visit the UK, but later flew to the Dominican Republic for a month when it was refused.


While abroad, she started spending money on Franklin’s family home, and the couple then decided to tie the knot.



They married in the Dominican Republic in October 2013, despite Claire’s daughters telling her not to go ahead with her plans.

Claire then made the drastic decision to ditch her British citizenship in a bid to bring Franklin over to the UK.

Claire and witness Angelo on her wedding day (Picture: Mirrorpix)

She was advised that UK law would always override EU law, and so became solely Irish, as her dad had been born in the country.

Franklin was then granted a UK visa as spouse of an EU worker.

The following year the pair moved in together and opened a joint account in the Dominican Republic to pay for thousands of pounds worth of building work on Franklin’s family’s house.

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They then moved into the property in 2017 and Claire also claims she bought her husband a £10,000 Jeep.

After a series of arguments, Claire went to the British Embassy to discuss her rights, and was allegedly left stunned to hear that their ‘joint account’ was solely in Franklin’s name.

Claire told the Mirror Online: ‘I fainted with shock. When I confronted Franklin, he claimed it was a misunderstanding.’

The former teaching assistant then says her husband went missing for six months – before being found in England, with a new girlfriend.

He allegedly told Claire he was going to Punta Cana as part of his civil engineering course, but had instead gone back to the UK without her.

Claire claims she now can’t afford to leave the Dominican Republic, having spent around £40,000 on her husband.

She is now working a ‘very low-paid job’ in Santo Domingo and has been staying with a new boyfriend.

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In the UK, Franklin claims he is set to be deported in the next month, adding that Claire ‘was the one’ who wanted to spend money on his family’s house.

He says his wife spent about £6,000 on the property, rather than the £15,000 she said.

Franklin continued: ‘I lied and said I was going to Punta Cana. If I told her I was going to England, Claire would have said no because it was too cold.

‘Yes, I had a new girlfriend, but she dumped me after Claire contacted her.’

Franklin says Claire did not spend £40,000 on him, that they bought his Jeep together, and insists that he gave her £3,000 once their relationship began to unravel.



He also denied their joint account was solely in his name, adding: ‘She spent all the money, but not on me. She ruined everything.’

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