The mum-of-two spun a whole pack of lies to her wealthy boyfriend to con him out of thousands to fund her lavish lifestyle, making him think she needed the money for cancer treatments
A woman who conned her boyfriend out of tens of thousands of pounds cruelly spun a web of lies to make him believe she was spending it on her cancer treatment.
Laura McPherson, who was branded “wicked and devious” by a judge on Wednesday, conned thousands of pounds from her wealthy partner Jon Leonard after she told him she had terminal cancer.
He then raised nearly £25,000 for treatments that he thought would help save her life, but instead, the 35-year-old compulsively lied and pretended she was battling cervical cancer while she lived a life of luxury.
She told him she had cervical, ovarian, colon, bowel and breast cancer and even led her young daughter to believe she was dying in a bid to fund her lavish lifestyle. Handing her a community order at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Jonathan Straw said she had ’embarked on an elaborate tale of deceit’ over five years.
Taking advantage of her boyfriend’s affection and generosity, the mum-of-two fabricated stories of her receiving treatment at multiple hospital and specialist visits, all while she was swindling him and splashed out on breast enhancement procedures, as well as holistic and weight loss treatment on trips abroad.
The court heard she tricked Mr Leonard, who runs Ultra Events, a platform for charities, into giving her £24,248.52 for treatments he thought might save her life.
At one point he bought her a £30,000 Rolex that she wanted, reasoning that it was wrong to deny it to someone whose life would soon end. McPherson falsely said she was having life-saving chemotherapy in hospital, while Mr Leonard even found a leading UK cancer treatment medic to try and help her – but she claimed she was not interested and would instead find a different course of treatment.
The pair met in 2011 and McPherson was well provided for by her partner, receiving thousands of pounds from him between March 2017 and January 2022.
Siward James-Moore, prosecuting, said: “She lied about the cancer diagnosis first saying she was undergoing chemotherapy at the Royal Derby Hospital for cervical cancer.” She then went on to say she had developed colon and breast cancer and was going to travel to the Mayr clinic in Austria to undergo treatment. Once again, she asked Mr Leonard for money.
At one point, he got in touch with one of Britain’s leading private cancer specialists and arranged an appointment for her, but she insisted she would rather have treatment on the NHS.
However, she would always insist on going to her appointments alone. In 2020, she claimed she’d had a hysterectomy – yet was pictured up a mountain just two days later. The same year, she said that she would need a mastectomy but used the opportunity to have breast augmentation surgery in Manchester – all at her boyfriend’s expense.
Not only had she lied to Mr Leonard about her health, but also her friends and even her own family, including her distraught 12-year-old daughter, who is now 16.
Police began an investigation in 2022, but McPherson told officers Mr Leonard had been controlling in their relationship, and denied the offences. She later pleaded guilty to fraud.
The sick lies came to light when Mr Leonard came across messages to the Austrian clinic. James-Moore added: “He saw messages to the clinic in Austria where it was obvious it was related to weight loss therapy. Perhaps the final straw was on New Year’s Eve, 2021, when he dropped her off for treatment, he was told not to come in and she exchanged text messages with him saying she was being hydrated.”
In his impact statement, Mr Leonard said: “I honestly feel she has stolen years of my life from me. She isolated me from my friends and family and even since we separated she has been spreading lies about me. Laura told her daughter she had cancer but would never sit down and explain this to her.
“For the five years she pretended to have cancer she would tell me she was giving up and not going ahead with treatment. I now realise she was seeking attention. The emotional toll this has had on me is difficult to explain. Her actions have been diabolical, almost everything she told me was a lie, I feel I was deceived in the cruellest way. She has destroyed my faith in humanity.”
He slammed her as a compulsive liar who had told friends and even her young daughter that she had cancer. He recalled taking calls from McPherson’s daughter’s school, because she had broken down worrying her mother was going to die.
He said he had been ‘gaslighted’ and described being woken up by her screaming at him for sleeping through when she had been up all night being sick.
In mitigation, her barrister Laura Pitman, said her client had no previous convictions and accepted “her behaviour spans a number of years” and that she has suffered from anxiety and depression. She said: “One perhaps wonders why a young woman behaved in the way that she has.
“She feels awful for the way she behaved. She has sought outside support to look at her behaviour. There has been no further offending by her. There’s a more constructive way Laura McPherson can be dealt with rather than custody.”
Judge Jonathan Straw called McPherson a “wicked and devious liar” and she was handed a two-year community order. A Proceeds of Crime Acts hearing will take place later this year.
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