A Metropolitan Police officer who lied to multiple girlfriends and took their money to fund his gambling habit has avoided a prison sentence. Lewis Rollins, 29, used women he met on dating apps to finance his out-of-control betting addiction while weaving a web of lies to conceal his true financial situation.
Rollins was convicted by a jury of two counts of coercive or controlling behaviour and three counts of fraud. He was also found guilty of assaulting a fourth woman who intervened to defend her flatmate, another woman he had been dating. The court heard that Rollins dated two women simultaneously, taking money from both, and later convinced a third woman to take out a £4,000 loan to help with his mounting debts.
Birmingham Hotel Attack
Dr Georgia Miller, who met Rollins on the dating app Bumble in April 2022, described his 'bursts of anger', name-calling, acts of violence, and controlling jealousy, including monitoring her phone. She accused Rollins of 'losing it' and attacking her in a Birmingham hotel room in July 2022, when he thought she had been texting an ex-boyfriend. Dr Miller said she was thrown out of bed and then 'slammed' against a wall.
Financial transactions shown to jurors revealed that Dr Miller sent Rollins £1,000 for a bet after he 'insisted' it would pay off, and another £1,000 to pay his rent. When Rollins started dating Dr Miller, he was already in a relationship with Alisha Steeds, whom he met in February 2022. She gave him £1,500 to cover his rent. Rollins claimed he 'always intended to pay her back', but the court heard he gambled away money Dr Miller gave him to repay Ms Steeds.
Financial Exploitation
The court also heard from trainee solicitor Emily Busby, who met Rollins on a dating app in 2023. She lent him money after feeling sorry for him. Ms Busby gave Rollins £800 for a deposit on his accommodation after he 'gambled away' money from his parents. In December 2023, she took out a £4,000 loan for Rollins, giving £2,500 to him and using the rest to pay off her own debts.
In a statement read to the court, Ms Busby said: 'Lewis has changed my life forever. For the past two and a half years I have been trying to recover financially, mentally and emotionally from what he did to me. He made me feel like I was never good enough. To this day I do not feel like I have my life back. This experience has also affected my trust in the police.' She said she has lost all of her savings and remains in debt.
Previous Trial and Sentencing
Rollins stood trial in November 2024 after being accused by another girlfriend of intentional suffocation and causing actual bodily harm. He was cleared of those charges but convicted of assaulting Helen Jackson, the flatmate of his girlfriend, when he grabbed her during an altercation. Rollins, who was a police constable in the Met's Central West Command Unit, was on bail for offences against Ms Busby at the time of that incident. He spent several months in prison awaiting the first trial.
Judge Christopher Hehir said he was 'not at all impressed' by Rollins' letter expressing remorse, noting that if he were truly sorry, he would have pleaded guilty. The judge described Rollins' behaviour during an incident with Dr Miller as 'breath-taking immaturity and petulance' and noted that he called her names such as 'slag' and 'c***'. The judge added: 'As well as being jealous, aggressive and occasionally violent to Georgia Miller, you were also manipulative.' Referring to Ms Busby, the judge said Rollins 'took advantage of her feelings and generosity' and his behaviour 'had and continues to have a devastating effect'.
Judge Hehir noted that Rollins had already served the equivalent of a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. If he had been on bail throughout proceedings, he would have received a sentence of two years and nine months. However, imposing that sentence now would result in his release within weeks or days. The judge said he 'cannot see the point of you going to prison for a few days or weeks' and instead handed Rollins an 18-month community order with a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement. He also ordered Rollins to pay £3,132.50 in compensation to Ms Busby within six months.
At the end of the sentencing, Judge Hehir told Rollins: 'You are to some extent a fortunate beneficiary of the chronology of circumstance.'
