Laura McPherson, 35, lied about receiving a terminal diagnosis to dupe her partner out of money over nearly five years, a U.K. court heard
A British mother-of-two has been spared jail after allegedly duping her partner out of over $32,000 after pretending to have terminal cancer, it’s been reported.
On Wednesday, March 12, Derby Crown Court in the U.K. heard that Laura McPherson, 35, had lied to her partner, Jon Leonard, about having breast, bowel, colon, ovarian and cervical cancer, telling him she needed money for private treatment between March 2017 and January 2022
The U.K. outlet stated that McPherson, who admitted fraud, had told Leonard that she’d been receiving treatment on the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), as well as privately, claiming she needed a mastectomy.
McPherson, who reportedly staged photographs of herself appearing to have life-saving chemotherapy, spent her partner’s money on breast-enhancement surgery and weight-loss treatment overseas, The Times reported.
Leonard, who has helped to raise around $51 million through his business Ultra Events for cancer charities through the years, told the court in his victim impact statement, “She has never apologized and never shown any remorse for her actions,” the Derby Telegraph reported.
McPherson, of Derby, even lied to her daughter, who was 12 when she first started faking the diagnosis, per The Times.
“She is a compulsive liar who even convinced her own daughter she was suffering from cancer,” Leonard told the court, according to the Derby Telegraph.
“The school would regularly call me to say she had been crying and upset because she was worried her [mom] would die,” Leonard told the court, per The Telegraph, referencing McPherson’s daughter.
The outlet stated that Leonard discovered the lies when he dropped his partner off at the Royal Derby Hospital in December 2021 where she was apparently having treatment on her cervix. However, he later found out she’d instead ordered a taxi to the city of Coventry, which is approximately 35 miles from where she was.
Leonard also called the private clinic where she was meant to be having a mastectomy so he could pay the bill, which was around $9,000, but he was told she’d had breast augmentation surgery instead of the cancer treatment, The Telegraph reported.
McPherson also previously funded the bill after McPherson claimed she was traveling to the private Mayr Clinic in Austria to have a hysterectomy. She’d actually been receiving “holistic wellbeing” and weight loss therapy, The Times stated.
“The emotional toll this had taken on me is difficult to express in words,” Leonard told the court, per The Telegraph. “I was left with deep emotional scars and don’t think I’ll ever trust people.”
Judge Jonathan Straw called McPherson a “wicked and devious liar” at the hearing, per The Times.
The judge told McPherson, “You told those closest to you that you had been diagnosed with and were suffering from terminal forms of cancer. It is difficult to imagine how an individual could be so calculating and cruel to those that loved and cared for her,” The Telegraph reported.
McPherson and Leonard, who started dating in 2011, split up in 2022, per The Times. She only admitted her deception during a court appearance in September 2024, the paper reported.
McPherson has been handed a two-year community order and must complete 30 days with a probation officer, according to the publication. If she fails to do so, she risks jail time. She also has to wear an electronic tag and observe a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time curfew between Wednesdays and Sundays.
