A COUPLE deceived by a bogus surrogate mother today tell how heartache turned to joy when they had their own child a year after being conned out of their savings.

In an exclusive interview with The Northern Echo, they describe the baby as “our beautiful ray of sunshine – a silver lining” after the trauma they suffered.

The couple, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, had suffered miscarriages and gone through three failed cycles of IVF treatment before they investigated surrogacy.

As we revealed yesterday, they were tricked out of more than £1,200 by university drop-out Samantha Cookes, who had promised to carry their child for them. Lying Cookes, 23, claimed she was a social worker with an honours degree, and had been a surrogate mother for a wealthy childless couple in the Midlands two years earlier.

A judge branded her a “cruel and sophisticated” liar and her story “wholly bogus”

when she appeared at Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced on Tuesday.

When a businessman in the Northallerton area heard of their harrowing ordeal last year, he offered to pay for another round of costly fertility treatment. The couple were reluctant to accept the gesture in case it failed again and led to further heartache, but took it – and are now proud and protective parents.

They tell of how the agony of failed pregnancies put a massive strain on their relationship, but how their ordeal has made them stronger and closer. “We really went through a rough time, arguing all the time, and we could easily have split up, and we would not have been here today,” said the husband.

“Thankfully, we are and we have a beautiful daughter – something we could only dream about at one time. She is the silver lining to the cloud we’ve been under.”