14 DAY TRIAL // A bogus cancer sufferer who feigned his illness to defraud charity appeal out of £99.50 ($167/€121) has been jailed for six months.
Simon Williams, from Wolstanton, Staffordshire, told family and friends he was dying of cancer so that he could pocket the money raised through a charity campaign set up to help him.
The 29-year-old fraudster even produced a fake hospital letter revealing he allegedly had terminal cancer, and duped his mother into thinking he had just six months to live. The conman didn't seem to care about the trauma inflicted on his family members and friends when they learned he was sick.
His relatives set up a charity collection in March 2013, while other well-wishers started a fund-raising campaign to support him. They even organized a three-peak mountain challenge in an attempt to raise awareness about his case.
However, the funds raised through charity never reached their intended purpose, and Williams continued with his scam for five months until some of his relatives began to be suspicious.
They realized something was wrong when Williams completed the trek without much effort. To set things clear, they approached the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, the medical institution that was supposed to treat him, and staff confirmed he was not a patient.
“Williams tried to do some positive work for cancer charities and in June he organised a Three Peaks Challenge. He was given in two envelopes £99.50 [$167/€121] for completing the challenge,” prosecutor Stuart Clarkson said in court, as reported by The Sentinel.
“Things did not ring true after a while and his half brother stopped believing Williams had cancer and threw him out of the house,” he added.
Simon Williams pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining cash between March 6 and August 3 last year. He probably thought he would con a lot more than £99.50 ($167/€121), but unfortunately for him, the scam was discovered before he could dupe more people out of their money.
“Your actions were contemptible. Most people who read about this case will have had friends, relatives or loved ones who have been diagnosed with cancer,” Judge Paul Glenn said. “Some will have subsequently lost their lives to it. You played on the sympathy and generosity of other people.”
This is not the first case in which a person pretends to have cancer to obtain charity money. In February 2014, Sara Ylen from Michigan was sentenced to a year behind bars for a fake cancer scam. She was asked to return $122,000 (€88,313) to an insurance company that paid for hospice care.