24-Year-Old Hanna Dickenson Faked Cancer To Fund Party Life, Jailed For Scam

A 24-year-old Melbourne woman, who faked having terminal cancer and scammed 42,000 AUD ($32,552) from her parents and also friends and neighbors so she could fund and maintain her partying lifestyle, has been jailed for three months, reports said Tuesday.

Hanna Dickenson told her parents she only had weeks to live and convinced them to give her money for supposedly lifesaving treatment in 2012. Later in the year, she also told them she needed more funds for overseas treatments in Thailand and New Zealand.

According to court documents, Dickenson's parents, who run a farm near Swan Hill in Victoria's north-west, were struggling financially and had asked neighbors and friends for money.

Dickenson, a real estate agent, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to seven charges of obtaining property by deception, the Herald Sun reported.

Dickenson told her parents she was severely ill with leiomyosarcoma, and not responding to treatments at Epworth and Peter MacCallum hospitals. The money her parents provided for her treatment was used by Dickenson to party with friends, abuse alcohol and drugs and go on overseas holidays.

The family’s neighbors, Nathan and Rachel Cue, also helped with money and were victims of the scam. The couple was struggling to fund their family business at the time, however, they still took money out of their own mortgage to pay for the girl’s "treatment."

Describing the moment she asked them for money, they had said: "We are sitting here in the dining room and (the mother) comes over and says Hanna has six weeks to live, she’s in palliative care ... we need $40,000 desperately."

They added that Dickenson would sometimes visit them and their children at home, on several occasions, complaining of her ill health.

"It’s terrible to think someone could put a front on as one person, and be totally different."

The 24-year-old was sentenced to three months in jail and an additional 12-month community corrections order, which will require her to do 150 hours of community work and also undergo treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse.

Magistrate David Starvaggi described her behavior as "despicable."

"There's been a request for financial assistance in circumstances where it had been purported that Ms Dickenson had very few options left," Starvaggi said. "The court must rightly deter others from engaging in this sort of conduct, taking advantage of people willing to assist and advance moneys to support somebody in what is perceived to be very tragic or dire consequences."

"Ms Dickenson has engaged in conduct that tears at the very heartstrings of human nature," he stated.

Dickenson's scam was uncovered when one of her victims discovered photos on her Facebook profile, which made him suspicious about claims of her illness.

Dickenson's attorney, Beverley Lindsay, had earlier urged the magistrate to not send her client to jail.

"Yes she has harmed some people … she didn't ask them directly though," she said. "She hasn't engaged in this behavior for three years, she's been a model worker … she's turned her life around, she's proven that. To send her to prison now sends her backwards."

But the magistrate did not agree. The court also added that Dickenson would lose her job as a property manager for Little Real Estate in Melbourne.