Cancer 'faker' who spent over £36k on holidays ordered to pay back just £5 after scam

dailystar.co.uk:

cancer treatment spent £36,000 on holidays, gambling, shopping sprees, restaurants and even a luxury private box to watch the football.The mum-of-one faked a cancer diagnosis and tricked around 700 people into donating more than £45,000.Nicole Elkabbas falsely claimed on her GoFundMe page that she needed funds to pay for private ovarian cancer treatment in Spain, with her plea raising a total of £45,350.READ MORE: Heartbroken mum of dead cop says police officers beat him to death in ‘mob’ trainingHowever, the 44-year-old from Broadstairs, Kent, was given the all-clear of cancer by doctors days before the fundraiser was set up.Despite conning the public out of such a significant amount of money - she will only have to pay back £5.According to the Daily Mail, investigators have since probed her accounts and calculated she made a total of £36,000 due to criminal exploits, Canterbury Crown Court heard.

They also found that in 2018 she had gambled away more than £60,000.The former Harrods fashion consultant pleaded not guilty in her trial in November 2020, claiming she genuinely believed she had cancer.Elkabbas was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison last year and Judge Mark Weekes said her ploy was "pure wild fantasy and a deliberate deceit" used to finance her gambling habit.He said: "You produced detailed and at times graphic accounts of the treatment you were receiving with a view to keeping those you had snared in your web of lies paying you money."Her GoFundMe page, titled 'Nicole Needs Our Help - Treatment', featured a frail photo taken after gall bladder surgery months before.In the description, she was called a "beautiful daughter" and "loving mother to her dear 11-year-old son" before claiming she was.