Albert Lovering of Waltham sentenced to six years; pleads guilty to scamming women he wooed

By Colin A. Young, Globe Correspondent

A Waltham man pleaded guilty today to charges that he stole a total of more than $200,000 from four women he romanced after meeting them through online dating websites, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone announced.

Albert B. Lovering, 54, was sentenced to six years in the Middlesex jail in Billerica followed by 10 years of probation. Middlesex Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Fahey also found Lovering guilty of being a common and notorious thief, Leone’s office said.

“This defendant has now admitted to deceiving four victims into thinking he was romantically attached to them and in need of financial assistance, only to have taken advantage of their generosity,” Leone said in a statement. “With this admission of guilt the defendant will now be held accountable for the years he deceived and stole from these victims.”

Lovering told the women, among other things, that he had agreed to buy an expensive item on eBay, or that he needed a loan to pay back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, or that he was hospitalized in New Hampshire and needed help paying for various treatments.

In one case, Lovering “stole over $100,000 from the victim based on his misrepresentations about being held in a medical facility in New Hampshire,” Leone’s statement said. “In truth and in fact, he was in Massachusetts and personally picking up and cashing the many checks [the victim] sent him to help him out of his plight.”

In another case, Lovering scammed a woman he met on craigslist in January 2008.

“Lovering courted the victim with romantic dinners and professions of warmth, affection, and physical attraction in order to induce her to lend him over $28,000 after claiming he needed urgent financial assistance,” Leone’s office said in a statement. She also loaned him more than $1,600 for an eBay purchase.

In addition to his sentence, Lovering was ordered to make restitution payments totaling over $78,000 to the victims, to maintain employment, and to have no contact with the victims.