Con Mum: Is new Netflix crime show based on a true story, plus who is Graham Hornigold and when does it air?

Con Mum tells the story of a chef called Graham Hornigold, who was conned out of more than £100,000 by a woman who claimed to be his biological mum.

He thought he’d found his long lost mum, but she turned out to be a serial scammer. Here’s everything you need to know about the show.

Is Con Mum based on a true story?

Yes, Con Mum is based on a true story. It features interviews with Hornigold, his family, friends and former partner, providing a comprehensive account of the ordeal.

The film also includes testimonies from other individuals who fell victim to the same scammer. Executive producer Jez Lee said: "Con Mum is an unbelievable, never told before tale of love and loss. The formidable original journalism will have viewers on the very edge of their seat."

Who is Graham Hornigold?

Graham Hornigold is a renowned pasty chef. He has a career spanning almost 30 years, and has worked in some of the finest hotels and restaurants in London including The Lanesborough Hotel, Hyde Park Corner. He gained the role of executive pastry chef there when he was 28.

His career began, however, when he was 14-years-old when he got a Saturday job stacking bread at a bakery. After a while, the owners bought him his first set of knives and chefs’ whites, instead of paying him a traditional wage, and sent him to catering college.

Under his supervision, The Lanesborough's afternoon tea won the Tea Guild’s Award of Excellence two years running and Hornigold was named UK Pastry Chef of the Year in 2007. He is also a judge on MasterChef: The Professionals.

In 2019, he co-founded Longboys with fellow pastry chef and former partner Heather Kaniuk. Longboys specialises in handmade finger doughnuts made from signature brioche style doughs and including innovative flavours. The brand quickly gained popularity, expanding to three locations and securing stockists including Harrods and Selfridges.

Graham Hornigold’s childhood

Graham Hornigold had a difficult upbringing. He was born in 1974 on a British Army base in Germany. When he was two-years-old he was placed in to foster care, but after two years in care he moved in with his dad, who was a sapper in the Royal Engineers, and stepmum in Hertfordshire.

He didn’t know anything about his birth mum. His dad was very strict and also violent towards him. He did not speak much about his mum, only to say that she had left. The chef has not seen his dad since he was 18 years old due to the violence he suffered in childhood.

The scam against Graham Hornigold

Graham Hornigold’s scammer entered his life in July 2020, when he received an email from an 85-year-old woman named Dionne who claimed to be his biological mother - and a multi-millionaire.

She said she was a wealthy businesswoman with fruit farms and palm oil plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. He did not know anything about his mum, so he had no reason not to believe her.

Dionne also told him that she had a brain tumour and bone marrow cancer, and had been given six months left to live, and she decided to reach out to him before it was too late. In the show, he said: “So it was a bit bittersweet. I’d just had her come into my life; now she was being taken away again.”

He recalled first meeting her at penthouse in Liverpool, where it appeared she had a lavish lifestyle. All was not what it seemed, however. Dionne was a serial scammer who manipulated and deceived the chef, and conned him out of more than £100,000.

To explain her apparent wealth, she also claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of the former sultan of Brunei. Graham knew that this sounded unlikely, but saw the VIP treatment she received at the Brunei-owned Dorchester hotel so thought it could be true.

When Heather Kaniuk, had the couple’s baby in 2020, Dionne’s health apparently worsened. She had claimed to find blood in her urine, and even shared a photo with Hornigold as supposed proof. After this, he deciced to move her into their home in Kent.

Kaniuk says Dionne’s mood changed after the birth of her and Hornigold’s son. She started criticising her and moaning she could not spend enough time with her new grandson, she said. She said in the show: “That sense of i’ve just become a mum’ was robbed from me, because there’s Dionne.”

Dionne then promised Hornigold lots of money - but delays kept happening which meant she couldn’t give it to him. In the meantime, he used family funds to support her, thinking he would be repaid.

Hornigold started to realise something wasn’t right after his friend Juan told him Dionne was likely faking it. His worst fears were confirmed when he found red food dye in her hotel room, proving the blood in her urine was staged.

He said in the show: “Yeah, absolutely. That was my downfall. If you don’t receive [love] when you’re a kid, you have this wound you carry around.” Kaniuk added: “It goes against everything you think a mother should do – loving and protecting a child. She didn’t do any of that; she effectively destroyed her child’s life. With no remorse.”

When can you watch Con Mum on Netflix?

You can watch Con Mum on Netflix from tomorrow (Tuesday March 25).