We had a Zimbabwean woman who had been living in the UK stay while, she claimed, she was waiting for her ancestry visa to come through. Her daughter in the UK paid for her initial stay, but then she wanted to stay on longer. Her name was Cathy and she claimed to have been a hairdresser in Bulawayo before going to the UK to live with her daughter. However, when I phoned one of the people she claimed to have worked for, they knew nothing about her.
After a week of no payment, I contacted the daughter and asked her if she could pay. Rather strangely, I thought, she asked me if her mother was behaving. I then began to notice that she had a habit of emptying her bin herself - at the side of the road! She also appeared with a 'bomber' bottle of beer at various times of the day.
By far the strangest thing she did, however, was borrow flower pots from Elizabeth and put them on the wall outside the cottage. Seeing this, I feared she was making herself just a little too comfortable and there was still no sign of payment. Her daughter made all sorts of excuses - 'Haven't you received it yet? I'll contact the bank immediately and see what the problem is.' - and I knew things were really not right when Cathy borrowed money from Elizabeth. I was on to the daughter at once, saying that this was not acceptable and that the whole thing needed to be sorted out.
That day, I went out and when I got back, the man who was doing some gardening for us told me Cathy had left. After numerous attempts at phoning her, she eventually phoned me and said she had to go to Harare urgently. She left some of her clothes behind which she asked me to keep until she returned.
Needless to say, she never returned. Her daughter became more and more difficult to contact and eventually admitted that she had no money to pay the bill. I briefly considered contacting the British Embassy to say that Cathy had a criminal record, but contented myself with taking her clothes to the SPCA shop instead.
By far the strangest thing she did, however, was borrow flower pots from Elizabeth and put them on the wall outside the cottage. Seeing this, I feared she was making herself just a little too comfortable and there was still no sign of payment. Her daughter made all sorts of excuses - 'Haven't you received it yet? I'll contact the bank immediately and see what the problem is.' - and I knew things were really not right when Cathy borrowed money from Elizabeth. I was on to the daughter at once, saying that this was not acceptable and that the whole thing needed to be sorted out.
That day, I went out and when I got back, the man who was doing some gardening for us told me Cathy had left. After numerous attempts at phoning her, she eventually phoned me and said she had to go to Harare urgently. She left some of her clothes behind which she asked me to keep until she returned.
Needless to say, she never returned. Her daughter became more and more difficult to contact and eventually admitted that she had no money to pay the bill. I briefly considered contacting the British Embassy to say that Cathy had a criminal record, but contented myself with taking her clothes to the SPCA shop instead.
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