A woman has told a court of how she thought the man she going to marry and spend the rest of her life with was a successful hospital surgeon with a house in London.

In reality he was a 38-year-old taxi driver, Farhan Mirza, who lived with his mother in a terraced house in Abertillery, South Wales.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told Cardiff Crown Court how Mirza told her he was a doctor, promised to marry her and would buy her a £25,000 diamond ring.

Mirza, who is accused by prosecutors of being a "sexual predator", is on trial accused of targeting three women, secretly filming them and then threatening to bring shame upon them and their families by publishing the videos unless they gave him money and gifts.

He faces charges of voyeurism, blackmail, theft and fraud allegedly committed over a three year period.

Giving evidence over videolink, the woman, who is single, told jurors Mirza contacted her after seeing her profile on the Asian dating website shaadi.com.

"He told me he was a surgeon, so I thought he was a surgeon. He told me he was single, never married and was a virgin," she said.

She said Mirza had told her he was a doctor and worked in a hospital in Bristol, was training to become a GP and owned a house in London.

The woman also claimed that he told her his father was a heart surgeon in the US and his brother an IT manager.

The woman described their first meeting and said Mirza soon started acting "inappropriately".

"He started yanking my hijab," she said. "It was disrespectful - every person knows that. If a woman is covering herself up she is protecting herself from being looked at in an inappropriate way.

"I am religious and I am practising - I am trying to be a good Muslim."

She also accused Mirza of touching her "inappropriately" and later making her touch him.

But she continued to see him and drove to his home in Wales, thinking she would be staying at a nearby hotel.

Fighting back tears, she told jurors how Mirza tried to initiate sex between them in his bed.

"I thought I was being too religious and began doubting myself. We were hugging and when we hugged he tried to take my top off. I felt like it was wrong and I was doing wrong," she said.

"I had it in my mind that he was going to be my husband and we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. I didn't know what to do. He wanted to have sex with me but I said we would have to get married first."

Jurors heard that Mirza then offered to examine her medically about a personal problem she had.

"He said 'I am a doctor, let me have a look...' I said 'no, I didn't want that'."

She also said she gave Mirza £3,500 towards the cost of a £4,000 motorbike and told the court: "I thought that he was the person I am going to get married to and was my future partner.

"I was on the website and I saw his profile and I set my heart on him. That's why I transferred the money because we were going to be together."

She said Mirza got angry when she later asked for the money back.

"I felt like he only wanted me for money and in my time of need that he walked away and didn't help me out."

The woman said Mirza sent her text messages in which he called her names and threatened to put pictures of her on Facebook, promising to "make her famous" among her work colleagues.

Mirza, of Arael View, Abertillery, South Wales denies four charges of blackmail, three of voyeurism, one of theft and one of fraud by false representation.