A former fashion consultant broke into tears as she was jailed Wednesday for swindling more than $70,000 from well-wishers by claiming she needed to pay for cancer treatment — but using the money instead on her lavish lifestyle, according to a report.
Nicole Elkabbas, 42, a former consultant for the luxury department store Harrods, baited almost 700 people to donate to her cause by posting a photo of herself in a hospital bed on GoFundMe in 2017, kentonline.com reported.
It turned out that the image, which she used to evoke sympathy for her alleged ovarian cancer, was actually from a previous operation to remove her gallbladder, according to The Sun.
The scammer — who gambled about $85,000 in a year — used the donated funds to repay her debts, as well as on trips abroad, hotels, lavish restaurant meals and a pricey box at the Tottenham Hotspur soccer stadium.
Judge Mark Weekes slapped the fraudster with a prison sentence of two years and nine months, telling her that her actions were “pure wild fantasy and a deliberate deceit.”
“I do not wish to keep you in the agony of waiting for any longer than I need to, and so I must tell you immediately that the sentence of imprisonment that I will be imposing shortly is one that will result in your immediate imprisonment,” he told Elkabbas, whose own mother died of cancer last year.
Elkabbas’s deception emerged after an oncologist who gave her the all-clear a few weeks before discovered the page called “Nicole Needs Our Help Treatment,” apparently written by her mother, according to kentonline.com.
Dr. Nicholas Morris, a gynecologist and former friend, also stumbled on the fake GoFundMe page, where Elkabbas claimed to be in a Spanish hospital. He noticed that the photo had actually been taken at the Spencer Hospital in Margate.
Police later learned that Barcelona’s Teknon Clinic, where she said she was staying, had never even heard of her and the doctor she claimed was in charge of her treatment didn’t exist, according to the report.
One of the people duped by the scam was Michelle Booker, who lost a friend to ovarian cancer and donated £6,000 to Elkabbas.
“I contacted Nicole and got taken for the ride of my life. I try not to think of that time, when I do I feel sick to the stomach,” Booker said, according to kentonline.com.
“I am angry at myself for being so naïve. When I stop feeling angry I feel sad — this has changed me,” she added.
Prosecutor Ben Irwin said Elkabbas was a “confident trickster” running a “sophisticated, planned, researched” scam.
Elkabbas was convicted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court last year of fraud and possession of criminal property.
Her defense attorney, Oliver Kirk, argued that she had no previous convictions and was in the “grip of addiction” at the time of her actions.