An ageing Brit looking for love has become an accidental star in the Dominican Republic after the internet girlfriend he flew out to meet turned her back on him – because he is penniless.
Struggling mum-of-four Wilfa Soto Peguero claimed she agreed to get to know middle-aged Glyn Thomas Bailey in person after he offered to help her raise her children.
But she claims when she went to pick him up at the airport he had no ticket back home and no money.Wilfa ended up turning herself – and Glyn – into the most talked-about couple in the Caribbean nation after recording a social media video pleading for someone to take him off her hands because she didn’t have the money to feed him.
Newspapers and TV stations in the Dominican Republic have raked over Glyn’s numerous social media profiles, spurning internet parodies in which the Welshman is portrayed as a fake Prince Charming.
Local teenagers have even posted an improvised rap on YouTube summarising the real-life soap opera – featuring him smiling and nodding in the background in apparent ignorance of what they are singing about.
News of the doomed love affair broke after Wilfa posted a sob-story video online revealing how she could no longer maintain Glyn and begging for help to send him back to Britain after a Caribbean stay thought to have last for several weeks.
Revealing she agreed to meet him after a six-month Internet affair using Google Translate. In their chats, she says he admitted he wasn’t wealthy but promised to help her raise her children, including two young daughters still living with her.
She said:
“I asked him to send me money so I could go and fetch him from the airport and he never sent me anything.
“But as he was coming to meet me I couldn’t just abandon him like he was a nobody so I decided to borrow money to go to the airport.“Later when I checked his ticket I realised he’d come with the intention of staying here and I can’t look after him.
“I have explained it to him a thousand ways. If I had my own house I’d let him stay but I don’t.” “I’ve got to look after him because he hasn’t got any money.“I’ve got my heart and I’m not going to refuse him food when he’s not giving me any money but I can’t look after him.”
She told a local TV station afterwards, flanked by sunburnt Glyn, while standing near a rented property where she lives in Castillo del Hato near the city of Cotui.
She said:
“I wasn’t looking for a man for money. We simply got to know each chatting over the Internet.
“I prefer to be poor and happy, not rich and unhappy and I want Glyn back in Britain so people stop talking about me and criticising me.
“I’ve been left with a debt of £240 I borrowed to go and pick him up at Punta Cana International Airport which I haven’t asked him for because I’m going to pay it back myself however I have to.”
She also claimed she had already been visited by British diplomats, who were last night said to be assisting Glyn.
Wilfa’s neighbour Kevin Osiris Mendez, among well-wishers said to have helped feed and lodge Glyn over the past few weeks in their neighbourhood where he became a local talking point.
She told the TV station: “We’ve all been worried. I’m a friend of Wilfa’s and a friend of the family and this has been a headache for us.
“I helped her as much as I could with temporary accommodation for this man.”
The intriguing episode has divided people in the Dominican Republic, where it has featured heavily on news bulletins and current affairs programmes.
Local Lola Segura wrote:
“This woman turned her back on him because he didn’t have money so she wasn’t in love.”
Cintia Yudelka added:
“The poor man came to the Caribbean and found what he wasn’t looking for.
But Angela Acosta claimed:
“This man is not normal. How could he live his homeland without any money with plans to stay in a foreign country.”
Facebook friends on one of Glyn’s social media profiles, saying he is living in Rhymney in south east Wales, are all women with around 25 of the 70-plus females from around the world appearing to come from the Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic daily Diario Libre reported said the British Embassy in the capital Santo Domingo had agreed to assist Mr Bailey after a hospital check-up.
A spokesperson for The Foreign and Commonwealth Office told the Mirror Online: “Our staff in the Dominican Republic are offering assistance to a British man and are in contact with the local authorities.”
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
