Mum faked having cancer and made up after-death plans for kids in bid to raise £20k

Mum-of-three Leanne Towers, 37, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, wired herself up with fake medical machinery to stand up her “wicked” lie about having terminal leukaemia

A mum who “wickedly” wired herself up with fake medical machinery as she lied about having terminal leukaemia has been given a six-month suspended prison sentence.

Leanne Towers, 37, told staff at her children’s school and a charity that she was raising £20,000 for an experimental cancer treatment in Holland as part of her deceit.

She also detailed to them how she had plans for her children after her death which included painting rainbows on their windows so they would always remember her, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

She took money online in a Facebook raffle and tried to organise a stall at a coffee morning at the school in Stockport to raise money for the bogus treatment, the Manchester Evening News reports.

The mum-of-three went all the way to placing a tube up her nose and strapping a fake machine to her chest when two members of staff school came to visit her at home, leaving them shocked and upset.

One of her own children was also left “deeply traumatised” by the claim thinking it was his in some way his fault the court was told.

However it unravelled and was found to be a “complex web of deceit” when a family member contacted her GP.

Her total gain was just over £100 and she donated £70 to the charity the court was told.

A judge said he believed Towers, who was suffering with depression at the time, had ultimately been “seeking attention” rather than being motivated by financial gain as she suspended her prison sentence for fraud.

Full details of the case can now be revealed after reporting restrictions in the case were lifted following representations by the Manchester Evening News.

Towers began her web of deceit when in the summer of last year she told the headteacher at Ladybridge Primary School in Cheadle, which two of her children attended, that she had been diagnosed with the blood cancer leukaemia. 

Towers, who had given birth to a third child in the spring of that year, at that stage said she was “feeling okay” and “that the cancer was treatable” Kate Gaskell, prosecuting , told the court.

In September 2019, Towers emailed the headteacher and asked if she could set up a table at an upcoming Macmillan coffee morning which had been arranged at the school.

The following day she rang the school and told another member of staff that the cancer was terminal, Ms Gaskell said.

She told her she had been treated at The Christie but had been too weak to care for her children who were staying with their grandmother.

She mentioned an experimental treatment in Holland and again asked for a table at the coffee morning on September with the intention that half the proceeds would go towards a leukemia charity and half towards funding her “treatment” in Holland.

At the same time she began correspondence with a representative of the charity Leukaemia Care.

She repeated her “diagnosis”, and her plans for fundraising and “treatment” abroad Ms Gaskell said.

She said was aiming to raise a four figure target and had raised £105 already from selling raffle tickets online.

A member of the school’s staff met with Towers’ children in school in September with one of them telling the staff member about his mother’s diagnosis.

He told her “he thought it was his fault because he shouts at his mother in the morning when he doesn’t wish to get out of bed” Ms Gaskell told the court.

On September 20, two female members of staff visited Towers at her home to collect items for the raffle.

“They found her upstairs with a tube protruding from her nose, and a box strapped to her chest which she said to them was to shock her heart” Ms Gaskell said.

When asked by the judge about the “rudimentary disguise” and where she had acquired it her barrister equated it to a “Halloween costume”, admitting it was “one of the most shameful parts” of her offending.

Both staff members were left “very shocked by her appearance” Ms Gaskell said.

“She repeatedly made use of the ‘T’ word “which they interpreted to mean terminal and she informed both women that she had been recommended for treatment in Holland which would cost £20,000” she added.

The lie started to unravel when Towers’ mother-in-law phoned her doctor’s surgery saying she was undergoing chemotherapy and asking if she would need a review.

They had no record of her diagnosis or treatment.

A doctor then alerted social services after an attempted home visit where Towers had left a note saying she was out.

The GP made an unannounced home visit on September 23 where Towers immediately apologised and told her she didn’t have cancer. She gave “numerous different accounts” to the doctor including claiming she was involved in a documentary or had acting as a kind of “secret shopper” for The Christie Hospital.

Social services contacted the school and the school emailed Towers to say they believed she had fabricated the story and that the coffee morning would only be for Macmillan.

They said Towers seemed “unfazed” by this.

Police were also contacted and they began investigating.`

Towers carried on speaking to the cancer charity, saying she would find a new venue for the event, until she eventually made them aware of the police involvement in October.

Towers, of Taplow Grove, Cheadle Hulme, was eventually charged and she pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud at an earlier hearing.

Andrew Evans, defending, said at the time of the offending Towers was suffering from post-natal depression.

He said she had a “difficult life” including losing a child in “tragic circumstances” and being a victim of domestic violence.

He said her motivation was “not the standard motivation” in a case of fraud instead suggesting she had been “craving attention.”

Towers was sentenced to a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months at a hearing on November 16.

She was also ordered to carry out 220 hours of unpaid work and 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

Passing sentence Judge Mark Savill said it was a case and a sentencing exercise that had “troubled” him.

He said it was so serious only a prison sentence could follow but said he was persuaded given her circumstances, including her mental health, that the sentence could be suspended.

He said: “The offence to which you have pleaded guilty is one of fraud and by and large, usually that offending is almost always committed by someone who is acting dishonestly and who is motivated by dishonesty at the outset.

“However what you have admitted doing is telling, not once, not twice, and not just orally but in writing as well, the most wicked and pernicious lie that I can imagine.https://get-latest.convrse.media/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-news%2Fmum-faked-having-cancer-made-23077063&cre=bottom&cip=54&view=web

“It was a wicked lie because of the effect on others.

“But not only that – as you well know there are many people in this country suffering from terminal illnesses. You dishonour them and you degrade their suffering with your falsehoods.”

He went on: “I have to ask myself why these lies were told.

“I don’t think anyone will ever really understand why you told those lies.

“But I don’t think the primary motivation for lying was financial gain. But that you were lying as you wanted attention and as a result resorted to telling these untruths.”

Source: Mirror By: Chris Slater

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