Woman Who Faked Cancer To Steal More Than £45k In Donations Ordered To Pay Back Just £5
Nicole Elkabbas committed the deplorable act of convincing hundreds of kind-hearted members of the public that she was suffering from ovarian cancer, raking in over £45,000 in donations that she spent on luxury holidays and gambling.
Nicole Elkabbas, 42, conned the public using a convincing GoFundMe page. even posting a picture of her lying in a hospital bed.
She splashed the donation money on expensive trips to Rome, Barcelona, a box at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, and heavy gambling.
During her web of deceit, she spoke on the fundraising page about her ovarian cancer diagnosis, surgeries, and rounds of gruelling chemotherapy in what prosecutors described as "detailed lies".
The 42-year-old con-woman, of Edge End Road in Broadstairs, Kent, UK, appeared at Canterbury Crown Court on Wednesday, where she was previously jailed for two years and nine months in February.
Elkabbas has now been ordered to pay back a mere £5 because the court has ruled that she has no financial assets or ability to pay back the hundreds of kind-hearted victims of her scam.
Last November the court found her guilty of fraud by false representation and possession of criminal property.
The court heard how Elkabbas had received more than £45,000 in donations from more than 600 people using the GoFundMe platform. Ben Irwin, prosecuting, told the court how Elkabbas was a "confident trickster" who made claims she knew were untrue for financial gain.
Mr Irwin said: "Clear emotive language, playing on the fears of the public, pulling on people's heartstrings and then saying that there was an opportunity to be saved." He described her actions as "utterly dishonest".
He added: "It was a scheme designed to trick and to con, and she knew it. So she lied about the major surgery, lied about six cycles of chemotherapy, lied about this wonder-drug - the breakthrough drug."
At the sentencing, Judge Mark Weekes said the deception was "cunning and manipulative". He told Elkabbas: "You produced details and at times graphic accounts of the treatments you were receiving in an effort to keep those that you had ensnared in your web of lies believing.
"All the while you were gambling, enjoying shopping trips and luxuries in Italy and Spain at their expense".
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