EastEnders legend Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) has discovered that her pension investment is a scam.
The heartbreaking story will form a centrepiece of the BBC’s soap’s Christmas episodes as she deals with the fallout of being duped by professional con artists.
Last month, Jean unexpectedly came into some money after finding out she had a pension pot she knew nothing about.
She realised that a sudden windfall of £12,000 would change her life forever, though the supposed ‘advisors’ on the other end of the phone suggested that she should invest the cash to maximise profit.
That would help pay for her dream of retiring to Greece one day.
She was spurred along by new pal Kojo Asare (Dayo Koleosho), who agreed that the opportunity to become a partner in an Australian tea farm was too good to refuse.
In tonight’s episode, sadly, her family’s worst fears have been realised.
Jean’s partner Harvey Monroe (Ross Boatman) had warned that the idea seemed too good to be true, and asked her to be more savvy when it came to her finances.
She was furious that he’d doubted her, and charged off to the cafe where a drunken Kathy Cotton (Gillian Taylforth) reiterated his concerns.
Waking up the next day, she didn’t want to speak with Harvey about the incident and tore strips off him for trying to influence how she spent her pension.
Clearly his words had given her food for thought, as she later decided to give the advisors a call to check in on her investment. Sadly, the phone number had disconnected.
Jean frantically searched up the company’s website, which had also been taken down. At was at this moment she realised she’d lost everything.
Daughter Stacey (Lacey Turner) found her flicking through countless documents trying to find a way to recover her money, as she began to suffer a panic attack.
To make matters worse, she declared that she didn’t want Harvey to know the severity.
The story forms part of the BBC’s Scam Safe initiative, and will continue as Jean discovers more about scammers and deals with the fallout of the heartbreaking crime.
Executive producer Chris Clenshaw said: ‘Jean’s story will highlight the extreme strategies scammers use to gain a victim’s trust to convince them into parting with serious sums of money.
‘Not only will Jean have to cope with losing her pension money, but she’ll also have to deal with a range of difficult emotions as she tells her family and friends what’s happened.’
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‘I am incredibly happy to see the issue of scams and fraud getting the attention it deserves with a storyline on one of the nation’s favourite soaps’ added Nick Stapleton of Scam Safe.
‘Scams are one of the greatest challenges of modern times; not just the money we lose to scammers as a country, but the emotional and psychological impact for those who go through one.
‘It’s high time we brought that fully into the mainstream and EastEnders is leading the way.’
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