Melbourne’s ‘Tinder Swindler’ confesses to deceiving women he met online out of thousands of dollars

Melbourne’s “Tinder Swindler” has admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from unsuspecting women he met through numerous dating apps.

On Thursday, Chris Collins appeared at Melbourne Magistrates Court to attend a continued plea hearing.

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The 33-year-old has pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including theft and fraud offences and breaching bail.

The court heard Collins - who went by the names “CJ” on Tinder, “Happy” on Bumble and “Ben from Brighton” on Oasis - convinced three Melbourne women he was a professional sports gambler and persuaded them to open betting accounts.

In one instance, the court was told, Collins took a woman to a pub in Richmond and, while she danced, he moved $72,000 of her savings into a bet365 account.

By the end of the night, $20,000 had already been lost.

The conman’s night of deception did not end there. He would go on to steal her credit card and use it to buy drinks at a strip club in the city.

When one of his other victims went to the bathroom while they were on a date, Collins took her phone - which she had left on the table - and lost $8,500 of her money on a South Korean basketball game.

When Collins tricked these women, he had only been out of jail for a year after serving time for scamming six other dates.

He has been ordered to pay all of his victims back but says he doesn’t have enough money in his savings.

His lawyer is pushing for him to serve his sentence in the community - but the judge on Thursday ordered a mental health assessment.

The case has been adjourned to August.