Alleged blackmailer demanded £10m from wealthy businessman 'because of a promise he made her'

Jennifer Mbazira demanded £10m from the man, who she believed was a billionaire, or else she said she would tell his business associates, friends and family he had physically and mentally abused her and used her as a ‘human toilet’, it is alleged.

The court heard she demanded enough money to 'buy a house, start a new business and put her son through university' in exchange for promising to leave him alone and 'not reveal details of our relationship'.

She claimed the man, who she had met through a dating website, had previously promised to fund her career in fashion and retail.

Today, Mbazira told Portsmouth Crown Court she first demanded £20,000 from the businessman so she could start a business importing baskets from Morocco and selling them on eBay and Amazon.

The 50-year-old mother from London claimed he had mentioned talking to someone who worked for online fashion brand Asos and wanted to back her desired career in that industry.

She told the jury: ‘He asked about my eBay shop and I talked to him about the things I sold.

‘He said to me, "why don't you make it big?” and I tell him I would love to make it big, I have lots of other ideas, but all my ideas remain as ideas because you need money to bring it forward.

‘Of course I had visions and plans but I couldn't, I explained that to him.’

Speaking about a later date, Mbazira added: ‘He said, 'you are quite good at fashion... I would like to do that for you, I would like to make you big'.

‘I have never had someone offer me such generosity, it really felt good."

Mbazira said she kept hold of this promise, but was 'not able to talk about it' with him.

She told the court he used the alleged promise to 'control the relationship', adding: ‘I felt he was holding on to that offer. He made it clear I needed him and without him I would not get this, he called it a lifestyle.

‘He had made this beautiful, wonderful offer but somehow I couldn't talk about it with him... any mention of money he would call me a gold digger.’

The couple broke up in February 2018 and in June 2018 she said she finally plucked up the courage to demand £20,000 from him to fund her business, despite telling the court 'I don't like asking people for things'.

When the businessman said he did not have that kind of money and did not think it was ‘sensible’ to be in a business relationship together he instead offered her £1,000 on the condition she didn't ask for money again.

Mbazira said she this was a ‘demeaning, horrible, mean thing to say’ and texted him back ‘through a shaking fit’, accusing the businessman of being a ‘narcissist’ who had been ‘taking but not giving’ and using her home in Clapham, which she shared with her son, ‘as a bed and breakfast’ throughout their relationship.

She said she had Googled verbal contracts and ‘decided I was going to make a claim’.

The court previously heard Mbazira sent a series of menacing emails to the businessman several months later, threatening to 'press the button' and send details of their sex life and allegations of abuse to his children if he did not follow through on his 'promise' to fund her business.

She eventually demanded £10million from the man, convinced he was a 'billionaire entrepreneur'.

But he told her in emails: ‘I'm not a billionaire. I had a good career [but] I don't own the companies I work for. I'm not a self-made entrepreneur.

‘There is a big difference between a director of a company (me) and the person who owns the company (not me).

‘I’m sorry you saw me as a billionaire entrepreneur when it should have been obvious I was not.’The alleged victim, who remains anonymous for legal reasons, previously told jurors: ‘To say I felt threatened was an understatement... I was really very, very worried and concerned.

‘I didn't have £10m to give her. I'm very comfortable, well off, but I don't have assets of £10million.

‘I only had one option, which was to go to the police.

‘I seemed to have become a fictional person... I wasn't a billionaire. Far from it. She seemed to have no relationship to the reality and I felt tremendously threatened.’Mbazira denies one charge of blackmail.

(Proceeding)