In the midst of horror stories about Gambian men who target Western retirees they see as a meal ticket, British great-grandma Margaret who spent $264,000 [£200,000] on her Gambian toyboy Samba, became part of the lore.Margaret’s life changed for ever when she met Samba Sarr almost 17 years Great-grandmother Margaret Sarr has been forced to work seven days a week in a hospital after she spent over a quarter million of her life savings on a Gambian toyboy who wound up cheating on her and moving on with a younger love interest.
Today, the pair are locked in a bitter legal battle over the ownership of a property in which Margaret invested $119,000, but in the name of her second, younger spouse.
The saga of their relationship comes as Gambia has been dubbed by some as ‘The GRANbia’ has become a noted “sex paradise” for holidaying grannies.
Welcome to GRANbia: Gambia has become a sex paradise for retired Westerners with randy grannies indulging in a good time with local, young men
Margaret, from Crawley, West Sussex, tells how her life changed for ever when she met Samba Sarr, a horse-riding instructor decades her junior, while holidaying in Gambia with her British ex-husband in November 2002.
After falling for the “handsome” Gambian, who at 48 is younger than her two children.Their relationship soon turned sexual, she began visiting the tiny West African country twice a year, ultimately causing huge rifts in her first marriage.
In 2004, Margaret’s 38-year-old marriage broke down and her relationship with Samba grew more intense.
The pair enjoyed an “amazing” sex life and he proposed. The following year, they wed in a lavish ceremony with the love-lorn new bride footing the entire bill.
Margaret and Samba enjoyed a lavish wedding [photo], which no member of her family attended. She paid the for the new lease of life all on her own
None of her British family attended but nothing could ruin her big day.
Afterwards she paid for his holiday visa and Samba, an odd-job carpenter, moved to the UK in June 2006.
But once home, Margaret tells how their relationship “instantly changed”.
“I was eradicated,” she explains. “Over there he was proud to be with me but because of the age gap he never wanted to be seen with me over here.
“He only wanted the visa. It was soul destroying.”
Originally the pair lived in Machynlleth in Wales but were shunned by the community so after a year, moved to Newtown in Powys where they rented a property.
Margaret says their relationship changed as soon as he moved to the UK and she realized her new husband “only wanted the visa. It was soul destroying,” she said
The move meant Margaret had to return to work shortly after retiring as a team leader in nursing homes.
“I was working around the clock to make ends meet,” she recalls. “While Samba sat around all day.”
Around this time, Margaret began to suspect he was cheating on her with a local woman his own age. Something Samba vehemently denied.
Margaret tells how she spiralled into depression but she did not leave him.
Instead, she ploughed £90,000 of her savings into buying a plot of land in Gambia to build a two-storey compound.
Open your hearts NOT your wallets: Retirees who are now jetting off to enjoy some younger male company on this tiny holiday destination off the West African coast have been cautioned o keep a tight leash on their purse strings
Their strained relationship continued until Margaret received a picture of Samba with two mixed race children from the woman she suspected he had cheated on her with.
“He denied it until he was blue in the face and said they were his friend’s kids,” she says.
“Deep down I didn’t believe him but stupidly I kept on living with him.”
In 2012, Margaret helped him secure British citizenship.
Shortly after, his lies unravelled and she found out the children were his and finally broke up with him.
Expensive indulgence: “Other women need to be careful. When I see my lawyer in Gambia I see women in there in all sorts of states.
“They target white European women and bleed them dry” said Margaret who now has to work seven days a week in a hospital, to recoup her financial losses
“I found out he was sleeping with this woman in our marital bed while I was at work,” she reveals.
“I used to come back and sleep in that bed – he didn’t even change the sheets.”
Now the pair are in a legal battle over the property in Gambia because his is the sole name on the deeds.
A final judgment is due at the end of the month.
“When I met Samba I thought he was the man of my dreams,” says Margaret.
“I was gullible really. All he really wanted was a passport and a life here. I took him out of poverty and this is how he repaid me.
“Other women need to be careful. When I see my lawyer in Gambia I see women in there in all sorts of states.
“They target white European women and bleed them dry.”
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