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A former police sergeant whose career collapsed when she fell for a bank robber is to become a mayor after finding new love.

Jill Owens, 54, was in a relationship with Dean Jenkins when he was arrested for being the getaway driver of a robbery gang in 2006.

Jenkins’ crimes would signal the end of Jill’s time with Dyfed-Powys Police, which she had joined in 1990, and her alienation from friends, ­family and colleagues.

But she has rebuilt her life and now runs her own property management company, while also acting as deputy mayor of Haverfordwest, South Wales, where she is due to become mayor ­in April.

Now, her story has been made ­ into a six-part podcast series called Stolen Hearts.

She said: “It’s been a long road to recovery, but I don’t blame myself any more. The police said I was lacking in honesty and integrity, and that really cut deep because it’s not true at all. Now I’m going to be mayor of ­ the town and that feels like a ­small victory.”

She now lives with her son Frankie and husband Rod, who she met in 2012. She added: “I could have turned around and said that’s it, I’m not ­getting involved with men ever again. I don’t trust them. But that’s not me.

“There are nice men, women, whatever gender, out there looking for love and it’s so easy to listen to bad stories as opposed to the positive ones.”

Jill had met Jenkins – a charming, seemingly self-made businessman from Kent – online in the early 2000s.

But after a whirlwind relationship, she found herself four months pregnant when, on November 1, 2006, she was told Jenkins had been arrested.

His gang had stolen £339,000 in multiple targeted raids ­­on building societies, it was said. She visited Jenkins in prison but never got the answers she wanted from him.

She said: “When it happened it was like a bomb went off, destroying everything I’d ever known. I lost my two daughters for a number of years, my parents, I no longer speak to my brother. I was on my own.”

Kent Police interviewed her about Jenkins and she was put under investigation. In 2008 she was “required to resign”.

She said: “It was a huge shock. I was 16 weeks pregnant, and my whole life had been turned upside down. There was no consideration at all for that. Everything seemed to add up to what he said he was, a successful businessman. Talking about it still brings tears to my eyes.”

• Stolen Hearts, from Wondery and Novel, is available on all podcast services.

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