Loughborough woman who lied about brain cancer jailed Published duration 17 December 2018

image copyright Metropolitan Police image caption Police said Jasmin Mistry's fraud was "bizarre" and "shocking"

A woman who pretended to have brain cancer and claimed about £250,000 from family and friends has been jailed.

Jasmin Mistry, 36, created messages from a fictitious doctor to convince people she was terminally ill.

Her con was uncovered when it emerged a brain scan, which she said was her own, had been taken from Google.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday, Mistry was jailed for four years. She had admitted one count of fraud by false representation.

The Met Police said Mistry, of Mallard Road, Loughborough, first told her husband she had cancer in 2013 and supported this using a WhatsApp message sent, apparently, by her doctor.

In further fake messages, the "doctor" said Mistry had only six months to live but could be treated in the US at a cost of about £500,000.

Her husband then contacted family and friends to ask for donations for her treatment, raising £253,122 in total.

However, the messages from the medic had actually been sent by Mistry, using a different SIM card, according to the Met.

Suspicions were raised when her husband's friend found her brain scan on Google.

Police said a tumour showed on the scan was "so severe that it would be fatal for the person with it".

Mistry was arrested in November 2017 and told officers she was not terminally ill and did not know why she had lied.

Det Con Jon Bounds said: "Mistry went to extreme lengths to manipulate those closest to her emotionally and financially to defraud her now former husband and his family out of a large sum of money."

He called it a "bizarre" and "shocking" case. Scotland Yard said 20 members of Mistry's extended family and eight others were found to have given her money.

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