What is cancer and how does it affect our body? Video / NZME
A woman whose husband lied to her about having terminal cancer and who swindled $4000 from her own mother for "treatment" said that he "stole so much of my life".
Ex-wife Lucy Witchard, 31, from Leicester, was first told David Carroll, 35, had leukaemia when then they first met in 2006, reports the Daily Mail.
The couple later married in 2011 and in 2015 Carroll told his mother-in-law Linda Eccles, who had been widowed three years earlier, that he might only have five months to live as he had terminal stomach cancer and she gave him $4,000 for treatment in the US.
Ex-wife Ms Witchard told the BBC: "He even got a work colleague to call me pretending to be his doctor."
"I knew after that phone call that our marriage was over."
The couple divorced later that year and his ex-wife said the years of lying had left her feeling "so incredibly hurt and angry".
She said the family became suspicious of the fraud while he was in the US and after confronting him on his return he became infuriated with her accusations.
Prosecutor Ali Zaki told Leicester Magistrates' Court on Tuesday how Carroll, who wept and sobbed in the dock, invented the fatal condition to con the money out of mother-in-law Mrs Eccles.
He said: "The whole plan was to fake the cancer to get the money. He lied about having cancer which led to him receiving a $4,000 payment from Mrs Eccles.
"He then went to the United States."
Mrs Eccles, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, read out a victim impact statement in court.
The widow, a former teacher at St Joseph's Primary School in Thurnby Lodge, Leicester, spoke out as she sat in her mobility scooter at the back of the courtroom.
She said: "In 2015, Dave came to me and was very upset. He told me that he had been given five to 10 months to live and there was no other treatment available to him.
"How could I stand by, knowing that I had money to help my daughter's dying husband, prevent my daughter from becoming a widow.
"I gave Dave $4,000 to help contribute to the funds he needed to travel to America to save his life."
Dave (holding the shirt) even had his team mates put on a fun run for him. Photo / Aylestone Athletics RFC Facebook
She told the court how her son Thomas and his wife Abi were suspicious of Dave' s story and began to investigate.
Mrs Eccles, whose husband Bernard was a religious education teacher at St Paul's School in Evington, Leicester, said: "This is when the lies began to unravel.
"As time progressed the catalogue of lies increased. I had to be strong for my daughter who was devastated by the cruel wicked lies Dave had told her for so long.
"I feel aggrieved that so much of the money that my late husband Bernard had provided for me had been spent on Dave's holiday to America.
"He has violated our family by his lies, deceit and selfishness."
Carroll, of Ruthin, Denbighshire, Wales, was convicted after a day-long trial at Leicester Magistrates' Court.
He was found guilty of defrauding his mother-in-law of $4,000 between May 1 and June 3, 2015.
Gordon Hart, defending, said his client was a man of previous good character who was suffering from a personality disorder at the time he committed the fraud.
He said: "He has betrayed his family by his faking of illness but he had a medical condition.
"It has been recognised and he has had recognised treatment. This fraud is definitely a one-off event."
Mr Hart said Carroll, who lives with and cares for his mother, had faked illness many times since 2007 not for any financial gain but to receive sympathy.
He said that Carroll had, over the years, even been faking illness when he was raising money for charities.
He said: "There is no suggestion that the money he raised for charities at that time went anywhere else than to the charities it was intended for."
District Judge Sally Fudge sentenced Carroll to 26 weeks in prison suspended for two years. She also ordered him to carry out 180 hours unpaid work.
She said Carroll had come very close to being jailed.
Judge Fudge said: "This offence clearly crosses the custody threshold but it seems to me there is the prospect of rehabilitation. You have made some steps in the right direction.
"Moreover you have a responsibility to your mother who has significant health needs.
"There is a deep level of hurt you caused your family through this. It is a very fine balance but I am able to suspend the custodial sentence today."
Judge Fudge ordered him to repay the $4,000 back at a minimum of $200 a month.
She also made a restraining order banning Carroll from contacting his ex-wife or former mother-in-law for a year.
Ms Witchard is now happily married to her new husband Keith, whom she wed in a ceremony in April this year.
After the case, Mrs Eccles said: "I rue the day that my daughter met this man.
"This has torn our lives apart and I am amazed that he has not been sent to jail.
"I just hope people read this and he is not able to con anyone else out of money by lying about dying of cancer. How could he do that - and to his own family?"
