Mum who faked having ovarian cancer to scam £45,000 in donations is found guilty

Nicole Elkabbas used the ill-gotten gains to fund shopping excursions, trips to Barcelona and Rome, gambling, as well as a club box at Tottenham Hotspur football club

A mother who faked having cancer and raked in more than £45,000 through a GoFundMe page has been found guilty of fraud.

Nicole Elkabbas scammed well-wishers out of tens of thousands of pounds which she splurged on shopping trips and a club box at a football stadium, her trial heard.

The convincing online fundraiser even featured a picture of her lying in a hospital bed – in a “scheme designed to trick and to con”.

She spoke about her ovarian cancer diagnosis, subsequent surgery and round after round of gruelling chemotherapy in what prosecutors said were “detailed lies”.

Elkabbas, 42, of Edge End Road in Broadstairs, Kent, was found guilty by majority verdict of fraud by false representation and possession of criminal property at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday afternoon following a trial.

She had denied the offences and her defence had argued that she believed she had cancer.

Her trial heard that the GoFundMe page garnered more than £45,000 in donations from more than 600 people.

It came with a photo portraying Elkabbass as frail, laying on her back in a hospital bed under a blanket, eyes closed and mouth open.

But the picture was actually taken after she had an operation to remove her gallbladder, the court heard.

The prosecution said the money was used to fund shopping excursions, trips to Barcelona and Rome, gambling, as well as a club box at Tottenham Hotspur football club.

Prosecutor Ben Irwin said her actions were “utterly dishonest”.

“It was a scheme designed to trick and to con and she knew it,” he told the court.

“So she lied about the major surgery, lied about six cycles of chemotherapy, lied about this wonder-drug – the breakthrough drug.

“She tricked people who gave her money and then she frittered it away.”

Giving evidence, Elkabbass’s former friend, consultant gynaecologist Nicholas Humphrey Morris, denied her claims that he diagnosed her with cancer.

In fact, the doctor told the jury it was Elkabbass who informed him she had fallen ill and, on hearing she had set up a crowdfunding page, suspected foul play.

He explained he recognised the hospital in the photo, by its distinctive bedside wallpaper, as the Spencer Hospital in Margate, Kent, where she had been treated for a separate operation two years prior.

Mr Morris added: “She has never been a patient of mine and she has never been to see me at any hospitals or the clinics I work in.”

Oliver Kirk, defending Elkabbas, told jurors that she is a “vulnerable” woman who has a genetic predisposition to ovarian cancer and has had cancer in her family.

He told the trial that it was the defence’s case that Elkabbas was told and genuinely believed that she had cancer.

Following the verdict, a spokesperson for GoFundMe said: “All donations were refunded last year when the misuse allegations were raised.

“Misuse counts for less than one tenth of one per cent of all activity on GoFundMe and in the very rare case there is misuse – we refund donations.

“This means there is no risk whatsoever to donors.

“We’re proud to have the world’s only crowdfunding guarantee, where your money gets where it is supposed to go – or we will reimburse you.”

Source: Mirror By: ByMichael DrummondMilo Boyd

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