Deltona, FL - A 37-year-old Volusia County resident is facing charges after he extorted more than $8,000 from a woman in the United Kingdom.
The Volusia County Sheriff's Office says that Christian Smith was arrest early today (August 13th) at his home off of Anderson Drive in Deltona, charged with extortion and illegal use of credit cards.
According to VCSO, the victim lives in South Wales in the United Kingdom. Just this week she emailed the Sheriff's Office and pleaded with detectives to investigate, saying she was being blackmailed by a Deltona resident whom she met online five years ago.
She told VCSO that the relationship was platonic until this year when the pair considered dating each other. However, soon after, the victim decided not to start a relationship with Smith because she's married and wanted to work on her marriage.
After her decision, Smith began threatening and coercing her into paying him large sums of money in exchange for his silence, including his child support debt.
Between July 9th and 19th of this year, Smith made written threats and recorded video and audio threats, coerced and intimidating her into paying him $8,714 in exchange for him not to send photos and videos to her husband, family and workplace.
On July 20th, the woman told her husband the truth about Smith. That prompted Smith to threaten her husband as well, both in audio recordings and on social media if he wasn't paid.
Despite her paying, he continued to threaten her and contacted her place of employment, a funeral company, and filed false claims against her. Due to those allegations, she is suspected from her job and an internal investigation began.
In addition, on August 3rd, Smith accessed her credit card and charged more than $2,000.
VCSO says that Smith now sits in Volusia County Jail, held on a $25,000 bond. Court documents show that Smith is set to make his first appearance in front of a judge tomorrow afternoon.
