A physical education teacher lost her life savings after she was pressured into a scheme to “flip” foreclosed homes, Supreme Court heard yesterday.Prosecutor Nicole Smith said Dianne Laird was assured she would get her money back in a matter of months but has yet to see a single cent of her investment returned three years later.Cedric Oates, 41, is charged with issuing a statement he knew to be false, misleading or deceptive to convince Ms Laird to invest $345,000.He has denied the offence.Ms Laird, a Canadian national, tearfully told the court that she first met Mr Oates in October of 2008 through the National Women’s Basketball Team. She was a player on the team; he was an assistant coach.The pair became friends and she would regularly drive him home after training.Ms Laird said the defendant, who was a school guidance counsellor, would frequently talk about Michael Hopkins, a friend in the US who he said was making “big money” buying, fixing up, and reselling foreclosed homes.As proof, he showed her a picture of a Maserati, which he claimed Mr Hopkins had purchased with his earnings.Ms Laird said that after she mentioned to Mr Oates that she had saved $350,000 to buy a home in Canada he promised her a 22 percent guaranteed return if she invested in Mr Hopkins’ operation. She refused the offer, saying it was too good to be true.In January of 2009 she said Mr Oates approached her again, saying that he had spoken with Mr Hopkins about starting a limited liability company as a branch of Mr Hopkins’ business.Her investment would be secure because the company had limited liability, he assured her.She said Mr Oates promised that her initial investment would be returned within three or four months, with the profits invested into new properties to “keep the ball rolling”.She was told Mr Hopkins would receive 65 percent of the profits because he was doing all the legwork; she and Mr Oates would split the remaining 35 percent.“Cedric said that was a good deal for us because we are not doing anything,” she said. “We just sit back and receive the profits.”Ms Laird said she questioned Mr Oates about the collapse of the housing market and was told the situation made the operation a better investment; foreclosed houses were selling for less and those unaffected by the economic downturn were eager to buy.Training for the basketball team ended that April but Mr Oates and Ms Laird remained in regular contact. She said Mr Oates brought up the subject of the investment during each conversation.“I felt pressured. Pressured like I couldn’t say no,” she said. “Pressured that we were missing out on opportunities already by not putting in money earlier.”She said in June of 2009, she agreed to invest $100,000 on the condition that she met Mr Hopkins.Mr Oates introduced the pair the following month in a fast-food restaurant in Tacoma, Washington.The three visited several properties in Ms Laird’s rental car, including homes that Mr Hopkins said he was interested in purchasing, others that he said he had already sold, and one that he was in the process of fixing up to resell.Ms Laird said she was told her investment would be used to purchase and flip two homes, with the initial investment repaid in three to four months. She said there was also discussion of promissory notes, but none were ever produced.She said $100,000 was transferred into Mr Oates’ bank account on July 21. She said she then believed that Mr Oates and Mr Hopkins were also investing financially in the project.Ms Laird was vacationing in Scotland when Mr Oates contacted her again.“He was telling me he was excited about this great deal that Mr Hopkins had found,” she said.”He said that Michael had put out a bid on this project for $350,000.“I said I thought that Michael would have already bought a couple of foreclosures because a month had gone by then. He said no, he had been watching this deal and this deal is a much better moneymaker.”Ms Laird said Mr Oates told her that the “48 Street Project” involved the purchase of two unfinished town houses, one of which had already attracted an interested buyer.However, Mr Oates told her that there was a deadline of August 28.She initially told him now, explaining that she didn’t want to invest all of her money in the project and that she couldn’t wire the money by the deadline.“The big thing, when I said I cannot do it, he made me feel guilty that Michael had put the bid in and if he pulled it out it would make him look bad and it would make it harder for him to do business,” she said.“At that point I thought we were partners, so I thought it would be bad for all of us.”She said that despite her guilt, she felt relieved until the next day when Mr Oates called again.On that occasion he said the deadline had been extended until August 31, the day she returned to Bermuda.“I felt pressured. I felt like I couldn’t say no or get out of it. I know it’s stupid but that’s how I felt.”The trial is set to continue in Supreme Court this morning.