The New Zealand family of Andrew Flint - husband of accused fraudster Nicola Flint - say they are extremely worried for him and the couple’s two children and implore him to return home.
Nicola Flint is accused of defrauding a Christchurch rugby club of more than $100,000 last year.
She was due to appear at Christchurch District Court on June 7 on nine fraud charges.
However, Flint had reportedly fled to her homeland of the United Kingdom with her husband and their children.
Andrew Flint’s sister and mother, who did not wish to be named, told news outlet Wales Online that not having him and the children in New Zealand was awful.
“Andrew needs to come home. We love him and the kids. We’re extremely worried about them,” they said.
The pair told Wales Online they had a close relationship with the couple and their children when they were first married but had dropped off recently.
“She needs to come back and face what she’s alleged to have done, and let her husband and kids mend. She’s ruining a lot of people’s lives,” they told Wales Online.
The charges laid against Flint include causing loss by deception, forgery, using forged documents, theft by a person in a special relationship and taking, and obtaining or using a document for pecuniary advantage, according to court documents.
She was in charge of the finances and trust account of Christchurch Football Club, the city’s oldest rugby club, Newshub reported earlier.
The majority of the funds she was accused of taking were meant to be for the club’s junior teams.
It was alleged she claimed to have terminal cancer and had made false medical letters from Canterbury Breastcare and St George Hospital’s cancer care centre to support those claims, Newshub reported.
A former friend of Flint told NZME earlier that deception was the most devastating element of her alleged offending.
“The criminal allegations against Nic are shocking but her most horrific behaviour is telling her friends, husband and children that she was dying of cancer,” they said.
“That isn’t a criminal offence but it should be - it’s devastated many. She is NZ’s Martha from Baby Reindeer.”
Flint is also accused of using the club’s credit cards to take money for herself, Newshub reported.