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When Samantha Phipps met Jack Ewing she was hoping her run of bad luck with men would change.

In the past she’d dated two-timers, a guy who slapped her after their first row and another who insisted on bringing his friends along on all their dates.

But Jack, a man she’d known through friends for a couple of years, seemed different.

So in January 2011, she made her move and asked him out. And he said yes.

Samantha, 26, recalls: “I finally thought at last I’d found someone decent and six weeks later I’d moved in with him.

"Things were great at the start. It was a real buzz. I used to count down the minutes at work to when I could see him. We had a fantastic relationship.”

But after a year or so, things started to go wrong and she suspected Jack, 32, might be cheating on her.

Administrator Samantha, from Bristol, says: “His mobile broke so I got it fixed only for a message to come up from a girl, a very blunt message, saying how she loved him and calling him sexy.

“I was shocked and thought ‘here we go again, this is where it all goes wrong’. The message couldn’t have made it clearer. Something was going on.”

But when she finally confronted Jack, a customer services manager, he looked at it and told her he had no idea who it was from – it was obviously from someone who’d sent it to the wrong number.

“‘Let me phone her then to check’, I told him,” recalls Samantha.

“I could see his fingers fiddling with the phone: ‘You can’t because I’ve deleted it’, he said. He told me it was a wrong number and that whatever I was thinking was wrong.

“He was quite cool about it and I so desperately wanted to believe him, but I just had this nagging doubt and it was affecting my relationship with him.

"But what could I do? I confided in friends and one simply said ‘so test him’.

“She suggested I set it up for a woman to chat him up and see if he fell for it. If he was true to his word, he’d tell her he was already spoken for and if not, I’d know he was a cheat.

“Later that night, I went on the web and found a girl who caught out love cheats by trying to seduce them.

"So I phoned her up – she asked to be called Miss Honeytrap, and we discussed what she could do.”

(Image: SWNS)

Samantha agreed to engineer a situation where Jack would be in a bar or club, and she would be out of the way so Miss Honeytrap could make her approach.

“She would chat him up, invite him to buy her a drink and even take things as far as kissing him,” explains Samantha.

“Then she’d arrange to meet him again at a hotel – that was her job done. I could then turn up and confront him.”

Samantha forked out £200 for the service last November. “I thought that was a bit excessive but she told me that the price included her drinks and travel to and from wherever the meet would be,” she says.

“I emailed her a photo of Jack and arranged for her to see him in a local pub he went to on a Thursday night with a couple of pals he played five-a-side football with.

"I was on tenterhooks when he went out. All night long I fretted as to whether I was doing the right thing, that maybe the set-up message was sent to the wrong number.

“But I had to get rid of the doubt. He came back home close to midnight, made himself a cup of tea and a sandwich and came and joined me on the sofa and we watched a bit of TV.”

The next day Samantha called the ­honeytrap to find out what had happened. “She was quiet at first and then explained she had a moment alone with him and told him he was good looking.”

“He bought her a drink and half an hour later they went outside and kissed. They even arranged to meet again on the Tuesday night.

“She gave me all the details of where they’d be meeting, the hotel and what time and asked if I wanted to go.

“I was heartbroken. He’d fallen for her so easily, but of course I said yes.

“Jack went out at midday on the Saturday before they met and said he was going into town to get some things he needed. I spent the whole day depressed, wanting to find a solution.

“I didn’t want to believe it but this woman specialised in this sort of thing and he’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

“The funny thing was I wasn’t bothered about the other woman any more or whether she existed or not. What bothered me was the fact that he would cheat on me if the opportunity arose. That was just as bad and that effectively killed our relationship.”

But things were about to go from bad to worse. “He didn’t come home that day,” says Samantha.

“I kept ringing him but he simply didn’t show. The next day he still didn’t turn up. I was constantly phoning his mobile but there was no answer.

“By Monday, I was worried. He wasn’t at work when I rang. The receptionist told me he’d booked the week off at short notice.

"What was going on? I sent him a text begging him to reply. The message I got back was brutal and to the point: ‘I’ve gone and I’m not coming back’. I burst into tears, worried he’d found out about my trap.

“On the Tuesday, I still expected him to keep the date at the hotel. I turned up because I wanted to see him, I wanted to know why he was behaving like he was, but he wasn’t there.

“I waited for over an hour but there was no sign of him. I phoned the honeytrap: ‘He’s not turned up. I haven’t seen him since Saturday morning. Did it look like he suspected anything on Thursday?’

“She said no, but told me at least I knew now he wasn’t faithful.”

Brokenhearted, Samantha spent the rest of the week sobbing and then arranged to go out that Friday night to drown her sorrows. “We ended up in a wine bar at midnight. As I took a sip of my gin and tonic I saw Jack from across the room. He was with another woman.”

Marching across the bar to find out who her man had left her for, Samantha couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“He was sat there with the honeytrap who I recognised from a photo on the website,” she says. “I asked what the hell she was doing and looking really nervous she said sorry, that it had just happened.

“I had to get this straight: ‘So you’re telling me I set you up to test my boyfriend and you stole him from me?’

“She looked down at her drink and admitted they were seeing each other. Jack didn’t seem bothered at all. He just sat with a hint of a smug smile on his face.

“I completely lost it. I flung my drink over her and she started crying. I stood there looking at them both, her with gin and tonic dripping down her face, him just gawping at me. I shouted at her that I wanted my money back and she cried that I’d get it back as my friends led me away.

“In all my years of dating men I don’t think I’ll ever beat this story. I hired the woman and then she stole my man off me.

“I saw the real side of him in that pub. He really doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He met the girl and just left, without telling me anything.

“A few weeks ago, he came round for his stuff. I wouldn’t let him in the house. I got his things and gave them back on the doorstep. When I asked if he was still seeing her, he said he was.

“He even admitted he’d been seeing someone else apart from me before her, but insisted it was just him and Miss Honeytrap now, or Jane, as I discovered she was called.

“Then he left and I’ve not seen him since.”

But Jack isn’t ashamed at being exposed as a love rat. “The whole relationship with Samantha was a mistake. I knew that when we started living together and I should have finished with her sooner,” he explains.

“I’m happy with Jane. She’s a very attractive girl with a great personality. When we chatted in the pub that first night we just clicked straight away.

“I feel quite good about what happened. I’d been seeing another girl on a casual basis while I was dating Samantha but that’s over. I finished that as soon as Jane came along.”

Jane Gill, 26, who has now given up her part-time job as a honeytrap, adds: “I did it as a way of earning a bit of extra cash. I had about half a dozen bookings in two years so it’s not been a massive success.

“The idea was to test men out, not steal them. I wouldn’t say I stole Jack. Their relationship was doomed the moment she booked me because once the trust goes in a relationship that’s it.

“I don’t make a habit of this. I’m glad Jack came along. We’re well suited.”

By Paul Carter

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