Scamfluencers - Listen Now: The Price of Paradise

Episode Date: May 5, 2024

When ex-Bunny girl Jayne Gaskin spots the desert island of her dreams for sale online, she decides to risk it all. Trading in their English village home, Jayne and her family relocate to their own private paradise, just off the coast of Nicaragua. And a reality TV crew follows them to film a new show, No Going Back. But soon they all discover that paradise has its secrets. The locals claim the island belongs to them, and it’s been sold illegally. Jayne’s not leaving without a fight. A fight that will soon turn deadly.Hosted by Alice Levine.Listen to The Price of Paradise on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/the-price-of-paradise/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Have you ever felt like starting again, quitting your 9-5, skipping town and escaping to the desert island of your dreams? Well, that's exactly what Jane, Phil and their three kids did when they traded their English home for a tropical island they bought online at a bargain price. But soon they all discover that paradise has its secrets because the locals claim the islands belong to them and they say it's been sold illegally. From Wondery, this is The Price of Paradise, the real-life story of an island dream that turns into a living nightmare, one which leads to kidnap, corruption, and murder.

We're about to play you a clip from the first episode. If you like what you hear, search and follow The Price of Paradise wherever you listen to podcasts. Or you can binge the entire season ad free by subscribing to Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Midnight in Paradise. Endless stars and hot humid nights. A remote island off the coast of Nicaragua. An island that's been home to an English family from Hampshire for the past seven months. And for Jane Gaskin, this island has become her dream, her destiny. There's no going back, she says, even if it all goes wrong and they end up penniless. But now, as Jane looks at her three children and her partner Phil, it's clear that something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

The Gaskin family is huddled together in a small fishing boat in the middle of the night dressed in soggy pajamas, shivering and looming over them three masked men. Just an hour ago Jane was putting the kids to bed, cleaning their teeth, before they all crawled under their mosquito nets to sleep. When an armed gang threw open the door and marched them off their island and onto this boat. But what is it they want? Jane and Phil don't know.

She squeezes her daughter's hand as one of their kidnappers raises his gun. You need to get us a million dollars or someone will get hurt. Jane locks eyes with Phil. A million? They don't have that kind of cash. It feels hopeless. And that's when she spots what her husband is up to. Phil is turning a soggy box of matches over and over in his hand. Staring at Jane with a look, she recognizes. Get ready, Phil whispers.

For what? Jane asks. As one of the kidnappers bends down, Phil grabs a jerrycan from the corner and rips off the cap. Phil hurls his arm forward and fuels showers down over their captors. Then he reaches into his bucket and strikes.

The boat ignites into a ball of fire. Jane grabs the kids and they leap overboard. Phil can see his hand is on fire, but he keeps pouring more fuel into the boat. Flames engulf two of the men. Then, as the fire rages, he drops the can and throws himself into the water, his burning arm extinguished in the shallows. Phil scrambles onto the shore and catches up with Jane and the children as they all

race into the darkness. Nobody dares look back, but they're not free. Not yet. As the family run through thick mangroves, dodging gunfire, one thought is racing through all their minds. How did their island paradise turn into this nightmare? From Wondery, I'm Alice Levine, host of British Scandal, and this is the price of paradise. Have you ever wanted to start again? Quit your job, leave town, build a brand new life somewhere new? You could hand in your notice to the boss you have always hated, bid goodbye

to friends you've outgrown, and the obligations of extended family could be a thing of the past. You could sprint into the sunset in search of your own slice of paradise, whatever that may be. I have to say, I've been tempted to hit the reset button, not because of the friends and family bit, obviously, love you all, call you soon, sorry I haven't replied to your text, but particularly on a gray winter's morning

on the London underground nestled in a stranger's armpit, sweating profusely in my outside layers. Yeah, I think about my choices, sure. Well this series is about two women who decided to do just that. Start again. Leave their old lives behind and risk everything to follow their dreams. They just happen to have bigger dreams than me. This is an informal disclaimer to let me off the hook. There will be moments in this story

where you want to pull off your headphones and stamp on them and maybe cry out on the bus or in the car, no. And there might even be some swearing, both in the program and possibly in your car, because a lot of things that happen involving both of these women are pretty extreme. that happen involving both of these women are pretty extreme.

The first woman is ex-bunny girl Jane Gaskin. I think to understand Jane and all the wild things that happen to her, sometimes because of her, you need to understand where she's at when this all starts. And that's in January 2000, the beginning of the new millennium. Jane has just survived the millennium bug, good for her, and she's just made the mother of all resolutions to leave absolutely everything she knows in England behind.