A REAL LIFE Shirley Valentine ended up homeless after handing over her life savings to her Turkish toyboy.

Grandmother Pat Ekins, previously of Middlesbrough, sold her house and gave £70,000 to a waiter she fell for while holidaying in Turkey.

The proceeds from the house sale - that were supposed to have been shared between her two daughters, Claire and Karen - were given to 32-year-old Ibrahim Halin who promised to invest the money in a bar.

Instead, Mr Halin disappeared almost as soon as the cash had been transferred into his bank account.

The heartbroken grandmother told the Daily Express: “He told me we’d make the money back and more within a year so I thought I’d be able to go back to my daughters and give them their share, with some extra.

“But it didn’t happen like that. I went to Turkey and transferred all the money into his account. He left the apartment saying he was going to sign the papers but he didn’t come back. “It was horrible. I thought we were happy. I was happy. I hit rock bottom.”

Ms Ekins, 50, was evicted from her flat and forced to return to England where she ended up sleeping on the streets after being shunned by her angry family.

After turning to homeless charity Emmaus for help, Ms Ekins has now put the incident behind her and is re-building relationships with family members while working in one of the charity’s shops in Essex.

A spokesperson for the charity said: “We help people like Ms Ekins who have become trapped in a cycle or ended up on the streets. We give help with problems they face and we give people a bed and a reason to get out of that bed in the morning.”