More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
The mum accused of faking cancer to pocket £45,000 of donations has revealed the “horrific” extent of her gambling addiction.
Nicole Elkabbass, 42, also told a jury a gynecologist, who she knew, diagnosed her with ovarian cancer in 2017 - something the doctor denies.
The former Harrods fashion consultant is accused of using the alleged ill-gotten gains to splash out on jaunts abroad and tickets to Tottenham Hotspur, as well as restaurants and "heavy gambling".
Elkabbass, of Broadstairs, is accused of creating a GoFundMe page posing as an ovarian cancer victim complete with a snap of her stricken in a hospital bed.
But the mother of one today denied duping the public into making donations during her trial at Canterbury Crown Court.
She "truly believed" she was in the late stages of the disease, the court heard.
“Did you set out to defraud these people?” defence barrister Oliver Kirk asked.
'Did you believe at the time that you had cancer?..'
“No,” she replied.
“Did you believe at the time that you had cancer?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Do you believe you had cancer now?”
“I don’t know,” she added.
Elkabbass told jurors then friend Dr Nick Morris ran a series of blood tests at his London office in 2017 that identified her as suffering from the deadly disease.
But Dr Morris, a leading gynaecologist in London, told the jury he had never treated the defendant and she, on the contrary, told him she contracted cancer.
Elkabbass told the jury she set up the GoFundMe page with her mother, Delores Elkabbass, to raise money for cancer drugs unavailable in the UK.
She told jurors she came across a drug in Spain at Barcelona’s Centro Medico Teknon Hospital, where she became a patient but treatment would cost £40,000.
She added that with her gambling addiction spinning out of control she set up the ‘Nicole needs our help treatments’ page, to use the funds for healthcare.
However prosecutors allege there is no medical or paper proof the defendant was a patient at the Spanish hospital, instead arguing she splurged the money on an elaborate lifestyle.
The court heard Elkabbass gambled about £68,000 in less than a year including online bingo, William Hill bookmakers and the Grosvenor Casino in Broadstairs, from 2017-2018.
Elkabbass told the court she cleaned up her act but described her gambling at the time of the alleged offence as “horrendous.”
But prosecutors allege she duped the public into making the donations to prop up a lavish lifestyle.
Barrister Ben Irwin told the jury other purchases included £3,982 to Tottenham Hotspur Football club, £320 in TK Maxx, and flights to Rome and Barcelona, where she also shelled out for restaurants and hotels.
Yet speaking from the stand Elkabbass said the premier league tickets were for a friend who lent her the money previously and the trips were solely for cancer treatment.
Elkabbass, of Edge End Road, is facing two counts of fraud that relate to money she received between February and August, 2018.
For information on how we can report on court proceedings, click here.
