Francesca Marzella, who hasn't lived in New Zealand for more than 30 years, defrauded an elderly dementia sufferer out of her home. Photo / Shestock
A grandmother sentenced for a "despicable" fraud that cost an elderly Queensland dementia sufferer her $520,000 home is to be deported to New Zealand.
Nearly a decade after conning 89-year-old Marguerite Stewart out of her Gold Coast home - and spending four and a half years on the run in
Europe - Francesca Jean Marzella is being kicked out of the country to New Zealand, where she hasn't lived for more than 30 years.
The 63-year-old, who is seriously ill with Crohns disease, was being deported after an order from Peter Dutton, Australia's hard-line Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, was upheld by the country's Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Marzella had befriended Mrs Stewart while she was living in a nursing home, and later arranged for her to visit the bank to cancel the power-of-attorney of her great nephew, David Stoneley, the Gold Coast Bulletin reported.
A week later, Marzella had a justice of the peace sign over the home into her own name, before selling it on the internet for $370,000, banking the money into an offshore account and fleeing the country.
