text: A man who has two failed marriages with Gambian women is hoping it will be third time lucky now that he is engaged to another woman he met in the country that he now calls home. David Tungate, 58, was left devastated after the marriage to his first Gambian wife broke down shortly after he brought her to the UK. He then remarried, but his second wife, also from Gambia, turned out to be a serial bigamist who conned him out of £24,000 of his retirement money and left him close to bankruptcy. David Tungate with his fiancee Isatou Jarju . Determined not to let the experiences put him off, David is now dating a third Gambian woman and is convinced his latest lady will prove to be third time lucky. The former van driver said: 'I know people reading this might think I'm the most gullible man in Britain but I'm not bothered. 'I may have been left with nothing from the last Gambian woman I fell in love with, but my new girlfriend is different. 'She is wonderful and I feel blessed. It may be stupid but I always follow my heart.' David with his last wide Ndey, who was a bigamist . After divorcing his British wife of seven years in 1992, the father-of-two never imagined he would find love again. With the help of his sons from his first marriage, David slowly overcame the heartbreak and put his life back together. It wasn't until 1998 when he visited Gambia on holiday that he fell in love with Nyima Sye. Converting to Islam and marrying her that year, David brought his beautiful new wife back to the UK but five years later their marriage ended and the pair divorced. David said: 'Nyima was too young for me and eventually the cultural differences tore us apart. 'We split amicably but looking back now, she could have been after me for a British passport. I would never bring another Gambian woman over to the UK because of that.' David swore off women but 15 years later, everything changed when he joined a friend on another holiday to the West African country. Just a few days into his stay, David met Ndey, then 22, a waitress who could speak good English. Ndey in the town centre close to her home in Gambia . The pair started talking and after she explained she was recovering from Malaria and had lost her job in the restaurant, he offered to help. David started sending her £50 a week and even paid a cafe owner to give his new love a job, bank rolling her wages of £30 a week, unbeknownst to Ndey. Finally in June 2011 David had saved up enough money from his job as a van driver to fly back out to Gambia to be with his love. He said: 'I booked another two-week holiday and packed my suitcase full of clothes and jewellery for Ndey. 'I couldn't wait to start our relationship and when I got there and she met me at the airport, it was more than I had ever dreamed of. 'Leaving her to go back to the UK was heart breaking, I was already counting down the days until I could come back and see her.' In October 2012, 16 months later, David flew out to Bakau in Gambia with yet another suitcase of expensive gifts for his girlfriend. As well as securing a date for their wedding, David rented a flat out for her so they would have somewhere to stay whenever he returned to the country. In June 2013, the pair wed at Kanising Islamic Court in front of Ndey's sister and uncle - sadly none of David's family made the trip for the wedding. David with Ndey, who became pregnant with another man while they were married . Returning to see his wife as often as he could afford, David planned to stay living in the UK until he retired from his job as a newspaper delivery driver. In February 2014, Ndey asked him if he could pay the £60 a month lease on a fashion shop she planned to open, which he agreed to do. Even though she became pregnant with another man's baby, David agreed to care for the child as if it were his won . On top of this, David paid £2,000 up front on clothes stock and began working overtime to pay for everything. But in October 2014, he received a worrying text message from an unknown number which read: 'Your wife has married a Gambian man, is pregnant by him and living in his family compound in the town of Bakau.' David said: 'I was devastated. Through tears she admitted she had cheated on me while I was back in England. 'She said she was now four months pregnant with his baby.It was heart breaking but at the end of the day, she was my wife. I agreed to raise the baby as my own.' David bought maternity clothes and baby bits for Ndey and in November 2014 he moved to Gambia to live with his wife, but his happiness was short lived. Later that month he received another anonymous text saying: 'Your wife has three husbands, two white and one black.' In the final moments of their relationship, suspicious David hired a private investigator to unearth the truth about his beloved wife who kept disappearing for weeks on end. Within 48 hours they had tracked Ndey down and discovered she was living in a compound with an illegitimate husband and his family. David added: 'Words cannot explain how distraught I was. I couldn't believe she would do this to me, after everything I had done for her. My trust was completely shattered.' In January this year David contacted the police and Ndey was arrested and charged with bigamy and fraud. David with Ndey on the day of their wedding . She was fined 15000 Dalassi - ten years' salary - and will face two years in prison if she fails to pay by the end of April. Betrayed, David is now desperate to recover the £24,000 he spent on Ndey over the last four years. He said: 'I refuse to divorce her until she pays me back every last penny. I have been left with nothing - no home in England, no pension, no savings, just £45 a week to live on. 'I can't even move back to the UK because I can't afford it. 'As they say, love is blind. After all those years I finally found love, and it totally backfired. 'Our whole relationship was a lie, and I had no idea. The fact that she so willingly took my money as well is just heartless. The text David received telling him that his wife was pregnant with another man's baby . 'Looking back now, I should have seen the signs but I was a fool. A fair few people tried to warn me but I was having none of it. Gullible doesn't even cover it.' Despite everything he's been through, David is now dating Isatou Jarju, 30, a cafe owner who he met when Isatou was working in a cafe with Ndey. As Isatou's British husband had just left her, the pair bonded over their misfortune and although the relationship is still in the early stages, he says marriage 'isn't off the cards.' He said: 'She is different to Ndey and I can only hope it works this time. She seems trustworthy and never asks me for anything. 'She has her own business, home and is beautiful. Above everything, she makes me laugh and has brought a smile to my face while I've been dealing with everything. 'She is very special to me.' Not bothered by warnings from family and friends, David is hoping to prove them wrong with his third Gambian lover. He said: 'My loved ones who know what has happened are absolutely disgusted that she would treat me like this. 'They think I'm mad for dating another African lady but at the end of the day, they want me to be happy. 'Although I'm still angry and full of hatred for Ndey, I just feel so lucky that I can finally have my happy ending.'
target: David Tungate, 58, from Norwich, is engaged to a 30 year old from Gambia .
  He has already been married three times - twice to Gambian women .
  His last wife was a bigamist who became pregnant with another man's baby .