Sanaa Derbas netted more than $2 million from seven men after telling elaborate stories. Credit:Facebook After seven years of scamming, Derbas pleaded guilty to 11 counts of dishonestly obtaining money by deception at the NSW District Court on Monday. Court documents outline how she told most of her victims at one point that her mother had passed away, often to buy more time to pay back the money she owed them. "Seeing my mum last night and feeling her cold body did something to me that I couldn't shake. Baby please don't leave me," she text messaged one 59-year-old victim. To another victim, Derbas claimed to be so poor that she couldn't eat.

Sanaa Derbas pleaded guilty in court on Monday. Credit:Facebook "I love you, can't wait to be with you. I haven't eaten since yesterday," she wrote to another victim. When police arrested Derbas and searched her home at Miller, in Sydney's south-west, they found a gold diary that contained the names of 103 men and their contact details. The diary also contained information about each alias she used – including the place of work, number and age of children and a residential address. A pink diary contained the contact numbers of 122 men and a red and pink diary contained the personal details of another 124 men.

Between September 2008 and March 2014, Derbas spent most of her time luring victims into thinking they were in some form of relationship with her, only to bleed them dry. She took more than $ 1.7 million from one 69-year-old victim. The pair had only shared a coffee and a dinner in Neutral Bay before Derbas started asking for money, claiming she needed it to pay her mortgage in August 2008. As part of an elaborate web of lies she told him that one of the reasons she could not repay the money was because her son had died of swine flu. Derbas told another victim that her daughter had died and asked for money to help cover her funeral expenses.

She managed to swindle a total of $186,903 by the time she had finished with him. "These stories, as was the alleged death of her daughter, were designed to encourage the sympathy of [the man], to help cover [her] lack of contact throughout particular periods and to excuse the delay in the money not being transferred," police said in an agreed statement of facts that were tendered to the court. One man, who transferred Derbas a total of $93,523, ended up questioning her legitimacy after she told him that her mother had died and she needed money for funeral costs. When he told her that he was going to police, Derbas responded by saying, "How is borrowing money a fraud?" The man later said to her: "I really hope u don't have kids that might have to pay a huge price when u get caught."

Derbas met one of her last victims, a 57-year-old man, through a dating service called Meeting Point. She told the man that she had lost an unborn child to an abusive partner and later in the relationship she sent a text saying her mother had passed away. "No matter what you think, I do love you. For some beautiful reason I look forward to spending every day for the rest of me life with you … I just wish mum had met you." Derbas is expected to appear before the NSW District Court for her sentencing hearing in February.