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A mum faked a deadly cancer to rake in £45,000 from well-wishers to splurge on foreign holidays and trips to Premier League football matches, a court has heard.
Nicole Elkabbass, 42, is accused of using ill-gotten gains to splash out on jaunts abroad and tickets to Tottenham Hotspur, as well as restaurants and “heavy gambling”.
The Broadstairs mother-of-one allegedly created a GoFundMe page posing as an ovarian cancer victim, complete with a fake snap of her stricken in a hospital bed.
Prosecutor Ben Irwin today told Canterbury Crown Court the ploy was a ruse to prop up her lavish lifestyle, including shelling out £3,592 on Spurs tickets and "gambling heavily online."
“She didn’t use that money for cancer treatment,” he told the jury.
“The money she received was in fact for a variety of things - lots went on gambling, lots went on travel, lots went on Tottenham Hotspur tickets."
The lawyer described how the page ‘Nicole needs our help treatments’, seemingly written by her mother, described Elkabbass as a “beautiful daughter” and “loving mum” who was “recently diagnosed”.
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.
“Well, members of the jury, simply put, these were lies,” Mr Irwin said.
“There she is apparently stricken and in her hospital bed, looking very poorly indeed, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
“Well, another lie, because that photo came from a completely different procedure when Miss Elkabbass had an operation to remove her gall bladder."
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, where she had been treated for a separate operation two years prior.
“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,” he added.
The prosecution claims Elkabbass staged the photo and claimed all the donations - there were 39 in total - would go through Ramsgate’s Jewish Synagogue.
But rabbi Clifford Cohen, who is expected to give evidence, claims he has never heard of her, the court heard.
Elkabbass, represented by Oliver Kirk, is expected to argue she honestly believed she suffered from the disease. Her case is yet to be heard.
Elkabbass, of Edge End Road, is facing two counts of fraud that relate to money she received between February and August, 2018.
Dressed in a black and white striped blouse with her hair in a ponytail, she interrupted the proceedings four times, prompting sharp replies from judge Mark Weekes.
“You will have your turn Miss Elkabass,” he replied.
Elkabass denies one count of fraud and possession of criminal property, namely charitable donations.
The case continues.
To read more of our in depth coverage of all of the major trials coming out of crown and magistrates' courts across the county, click here.
