A mum who conned her family in a £35,000 fake Hollywood actress scam has been tagged for ten months.

Ann Dunlop, 69, claimed her daughter Heather Dunlop, 40, was being groomed for multi-million pound contracts.

Dunlop persuaded her brother, 52, to give Heather cash to help her progress.

She claimed that Heather was mingling with celebrities such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Beyonce and was being managed by American entertainment executive Irving Azoff.

Dunlop also induced his sister and her husband with the string of lies.

Her brother-in-law believed Dunlop and Heather had “champagne on tap” at the plush London home they shared.

He stated that he thought Dunlop and her family were “like the Waltons”, but ended up “like the Dingles”.

He stated that Heather’s acting career was a “best kept secret” and compared it to the nuclear codes at Faslane.

Dunlop later asked her brother-in-law and sister to pay her and Heather’s gas bills and council tax as she did not have enough money.

Dunlop was found guilty last year of defrauding her family of a total of £35,368 at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Heather was sentenced to eight months in prison last week after pleading guilty to a similar charge.

Sheriff Vincent Lunny also told the hearing that Dunlop, of Margate, Kent, would need to find a Scottish address to receive a tag or face a similar fate to her daughter.

Dunlop’s lawyer, Neil Stewart, said at Wednesday’s sentencing that she would stay with her mother.

Sheriff Lunny placed Dunlop on a restraining order, which is an “alternative to custody”.

He said: “The stress on your family has been significant but I can step back, just just, from custody.

“I appreciate that being told the money is available (to pay back his victims) didn’t come from you and distinguishes you to some degree.

“Your evidence at trial was not believed at all and your appeal was unsuccessful.”

The court heard during the trial that Heather – who used the name Heather Cameron – appeared in a non-speaking role in a BBC period drama as well as a TV show with comedian Noel Fielding.

Dunlop’s brother – the chief executive of a life sciences company – was approached by Dunlop and Heather in March 2016 after he sold his business.

He said he handed over £5,000 to the pair, formerly of Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, for the actress to “build her career”.

He told the court he was told by Dunlop that Heather was represented by Hollywood mogul Irving Azoff.

He said: “There was talk of meeting Beyonce and Jay Z… movies with Quentin Tarantino and Michael Keaton.

“She went to the Oscars to make various connections.

“Azoff was her manager, met Leonardo DiCaprio, and was working on promotional activities for Chanel that would accompany her films.”

The family was also told that Heather was to star in a film version of the musical Wicked directed by Tim Burton.

Dunlop’s brother said he did not know the figure the woman would receive, but believed it was in the millions.

He handed over a further £27,000 to the pair when he heard that Dunlop and her husband, who also lived with them, were “fighting”.

He also paid a bill for council tax and gas.

Prosecutor Redmond Harris asked about any repayment.

He said: “It was promised… this was made clear through phone calls and text messages.”

Dunlop’s brother was not paid back and his suspicions grew after Heather failed to appear in a Chanel Christmas advert in 2016.

Fears grew even more after he hired a private detective to keep Heather under control.

He said: “(We wanted) to determine if there was a relationship with Irving Azoff and if it is true that she was an actor and if there is any basis for what we have been told in the previous months.”

Mr Harris asked: “After the private investigator thing, were your suspicions heightened or unfounded?”

He said: “It confirmed what our fears were.”

He met Dunlop in a London pub in 2017 but did not get a satisfactory answer as to why he had not been paid back.

Mr Harris asked: “What do you know about the woman’s acting career?”

He replied, “From searching the internet, there was no career as far as I know.”

Dunlop’s brother-in-law, 67, claimed he was under the impression Dunlop and Heather were living “a movie lifestyle in London”.

Her brother-in-law recalled visiting the pair at their Notting Hill home for Dunlop’s 60th birthday party.

He said: “I had never seen so many bottles of champagne … champagne was on tap there.”

He stated that Heather shopped at Harrods and went to handbag stores in London.

The brother-in-law paid Dunlop’s £600 gas bill in November 2016 before transferring £1,000 from his overdraft because he “said he didn’t have enough money”.

He claimed Dunlop told him he would be paid in two weeks.

He added: “The explanation was that there was a large sum of money in Coutts Bank but it was placed in an investment fund and it was not immediately available but it will be sorted out.”

Dunlop’s brother-in-law stated that Dunlop later told him that Tim Burton had collected Heather’s bank cards and put them in a safe.

Mr Harris asked about his relationship with his wife’s family before the bank transfers.

He said: “I thought I married into the Waltons… I didn’t know I married into the Dingles.”

He said Heather’s acting career was “a better kept secret than the nuclear codes at Faslane”.

Last week’s hearing was told that 10% of the money had been returned to the victims.

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