'Wicked' UK Mum Lied About Cancer to Scam Wealthy Partner, Blew 'Treatment Money' on Spa Days Instead

A mother of two, described by a judge as 'wicked and devious,' duped her wealthy partner by faking a terminal illness, using the money for cosmetic surgery and luxury treatments—yet has avoided jail.

Laura McPherson, 35, convinced businessman Jon Leonard that she was battling multiple forms of cancer, including cervical, ovarian, colon, bowel, and breast cancer. She even misled her own young daughter into believing she was dying.

Appearing at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Jonathan Straw condemned her 'elaborate tale of deceit,' which spanned five years, but handed her a community order instead of a prison sentence.

Elaborate Lies And Broken Trust

'You told those closest to you that you had been diagnosed with and were suffering from terminal forms of cancer,' he told sobbing McPherson. 'It is difficult to imagine how an individual could be so calculating and cruel to those that loved and cared for her.'

'It was a deliberate, narcissistic route to attention and money,' Straw told McPherson. The court learned she deceived Leonard, who operates Ultra Events, a charity-focused platform, into giving her £24,248.52, believing it would fund life-saving treatments.

The money paid for a retreat to the Mayr Resort in Austria, situated on Lake Worthersee, for a holistic slimming program, plus a breast enhancement operation performed in Manchester. During a heartfelt victim impact statement presented to the court, Leonard, 44, expressed that she had taken eight years of his life, leaving him with 'feelings of total despair, wracked by self-doubt and emotionally scarred.'

Years Of Calculated Deception

He portrayed her as someone who lied constantly, having told both friends and her young daughter that she was ill with cancer. This resulted in him receiving calls from McPherson's daughter's school, where she had become upset, fearing her mother's impending death.

'Even after pleading guilty, she has spent the last three years spreading disgusting lies about me,' he said, 'And she has never shown any remorse.'

He felt he had been 'gaslighted' and recounted being roused from sleep by her yelling, accusing him of sleeping while she had been up all night ill. He even purchased a £30,000 Rolex for her, justifying it by thinking it unfair to refuse a dying person's wish.

He even contacted a top private cancer expert in the UK and set up a consultation, but she maintained she preferred her NHS care. He explained that it even resulted in a rift with his long-time friend, who held a senior nursing position at a Swansea hospital.

He informed Leonard that certain parts of McPherson's supposed treatment didn't make sense, stating you 'wouldn't be going straight to the gym after having chemotherapy.'

A Victim's Heartbreak And Betrayal

'I was prepared to fall out with my friend,' he said, 'I was left completely isolated.' During her period of deception, McPherson held the position of marketing director at Ultra Events, her boyfriend's company, which has successfully raised more than £39 million for charities.

The court was told McPherson used her supposed illness as a reason to skip meetings, and she even gave advice to colleagues whose relatives were diagnosed with cancer. Once, she erupted in fury when a colleague mentioned that their father chose to forgo chemotherapy and let the illness take its course.

Prosecutor Siward James-Moore stated that the two met in 2011 and that her partner, whose business was thriving, provided her with a comfortable lifestyle. In March 2017, she initially claimed to have cervical cancer and was receiving care at Royal Derby Hospital.

From Fake Illness To Luxury Spas

James-Moore stated that she then asked her partner about his medical coverage. Though he offered to join her at her various appointments, she always preferred to go unaccompanied. 'Between 2018 and 2022, she variously said she had ovarian, colon, bowel and breast cancer,' said James-Moore.

'She claimed to have travelled for treatment to the Mayr Clinic in Austria (at Leonard's expense). In 2020, she claimed to have had a hysterectomy. 'Strangely,' the prosecutor added, ' she was pictured up a mountain two days later.'

During that same period, she claimed she needed a mastectomy but utilised that claim to get breast augmentation surgery in Manchester, which Leonard paid for. As 2021 ended, on New Year's Eve, Leonard delivered her to her cervical procedure.

When he requested a self-portrait, she told him she was hooked up to a drip and her phone was broken. DailyMail reported that she had taken a cab to Coventry to celebrate the start of the new year.

Avoiding Jail: The Court's Decision

When apprehended and questioned about the fraud accusation in 2022, she denied it and claimed her partner was controlling. In her defence, her lawyer, Laura Pitman, stated that she experienced 'depression, anxiety, and signs of trauma.'

She mentioned that her parents and a new partner, Alex, were now supporting her and that she had given birth to a baby last March. She asked the judge to avoid imprisonment and instead assign her intensive probation service intervention to determine the reasons behind her actions.

Pitman pointed out that her client had a clean record and 'accepts her behaviour spans a number of years' and that she had experienced anxiety and depression. She remarked, '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.'

Having pleaded guilty to fraud at an earlier trial, she was given a community order and a curfew from 7 pm to 6 am, five days a week. The judge additionally ordered her to complete 30 days of probation service engagement, and warned that any breach would lead to immediate jail time. A future court date, 6th June, was set for a hearing regarding the proceeds of crime.