Woman faked cancer, tricking partner into buying her breast implants

Laura McPherson defrauded her ex-partner over the course of five years.

After convincing her partner she was terminally ill, a Derby woman tricked him into bankrolling cosmetic procedures she claimed were cancer treatments.

Laura McPherson faced a Proceeds of Crime hearing, where the Derby Crown Courts ordered she pay her ex-partner a whopping £30,714 ($71,091) by January 5.

The 36-year-old mother of two duped Jon Leonard into funding overseas trips, expensive spa days, and a breast augmentation, Metro reports.

Leonard, who has raised more than £40 million ($93 million) for cancer charities, had been in a relationship with McPherson since 2011.

Her web of lies only began in 2017, when McPherson told her partner she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer and started to request money for her medical care.

Though her diagnoses multiplied over the years, expanding to ovarian, colon, bowel, and breast cancers, she never allowed her loved ones to attend treatments with her.

While she told Leonard she was undergoing a mastectomy, she instead had her breasts enlarged - with the money he thought was going to the life-saving cancer treatment.

McPherson’s hoodwinked better half even bought her a Rolex watch valued at £30,000 ($69,436) because he felt the supposedly suffering cancer patient “deserved” it.

Jon Leonard funded Laura McPherson's trip to Austria. Photo / Jon Leonard.

According to the Telegraph, a taxi ride would become the key to unravelling McPherson’s deceit.

In 2021, she had Leonard drop her to the hospital before covertly heading to a New Year’s Eve party in Coventry.

He discovered McPherson’s deception in the new year, uncovering the extent of her lies when he found a receipt for the ride in her emails.

According to Derbyshire Live, Judge Jonathan Straw described the woman as a “wicked and devious liar” at her initial sentencing in March.

The “sophisticated” offending had also convinced McPherson’s 12-year-old her mother was dying.

“It is difficult to imagine how an individual could be so calculated and cruel to those who loved and cared for her.”

Following the latest hearing, Leonard gave his own statement to mark “the end of eight and a half challenging years”, Metro reports.

“She never had cancer, and it has now come to light she has been making up having cancer since she was in secondary school, long before I knew her,” he wrote.

While the fraudster avoided jail, she will serve a two-year community order alongside her obligations to pay Leonard back.

Some of the compensation will be covered by the sale of a designer watch, though it was not specified whether it is the same timepiece Leonard purchased for her.