Mum who faked cancer diagnosis to rake in £45,000 ordered to pay just £5 back

Nicole Elkabbas, 44, said she needed the cash for treatment in Spain (Picture: SWNS/PA)

A ‘cunning and manipulative’ woman who faked having cancer to defraud people out of tens-of-thousands of pounds has been ordered to repay just a fiver.

Nicole Elkabbas, 44, lied about undergoing six rounds of chemotherapy and three operations after an ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Her GoFundMe page, titled ‘Nicole Needs Our Help Treatment’, raised £45,000 for a breakthrough treatment in Spain – just days after doctors gave her the all clear.

Some 700 strangers donated along with many from her community in Broadstairs, in Kent, in the spring of 2018.

Instead of using the money for treatment, Elkabbas splashed out on trips to Italy and Spain, a box at Tottenham Hotspur football club, gambling and lavish meals at restaurants.

The single mum-of-one has now been ordered to repay just £5 because she has no financial assets.

She was only caught after her consultant oncologist discovered her page asking for donations seemingly set up by her mum Delores – days after examining her.

A picture of Elkabbas on a hospital bed which the prosecution said was ‘staged to convince people that she was seriously unwell’ (Picture: PA)

The former Harrods fashion consultant pleaded not guilty in her trial in November 2020, claiming she genuinely believed she had cancer, but she was jailed for two years and nine months in 2021.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how her deceit was built around a photo posted on her GoFundMe claiming to show her stricken in hospital.

But this was from a previous operation to remove Elkabbas’ gallbladder.

A message on the fundraising page said the ‘loving mum’ who was ‘recently diagnosed’ needed cash for life-saving treatment.

In sentencing, Judge Mark Weekes said: ‘The deception was cunning and manipulative.

She now has no assets to pay back the cash she defrauded (Picture: KMG/SWNS)

‘You produced detail and at times a graphic account of the treatment you were receiving with a view to keeping those you had snared in your web of lies paying you money.

‘You tugged at their heart strings. You made mention of your child to add to gild the lily still further and to attempt to wring more cash out of those you had deceived.

‘All the while, you were gambling, enjoying shopping trips and luxuries in Italy and Spain at their expense.’

He described Elkabbas’ actions as ‘insulting to those who must genuinely and courageously face the battle against cancer’.