A 24-year-old in Australia pretended to have cancer and swindled £23,000 from her parents and friends in a “despicable” scam to fund her partying, drug use and overseas travel.

Hanna Dickenson, then 19, convinced her parents she only had weeks to live and desperately needed money for a lifesaving treatment and for travel to New Zealand and Thailand for special procedures.

Her parents, who are farmers, could not afford the alleged treatments and asked neighbours and friends to assist.

Nathan and Rachel Cue, who were neighbours, took money out of their mortgage and donated £11,000 but went to police after spotting images that Dickenson posted on Facebook which showed her drinking and partying.

“I started looking into it, doing my homework,” Mr Cue told Channel Nine. “I spent a fair bit of time and sussing things out and [I was] 100 per cent scammed. So that’s when I took it to the police.”

Police eventually charged Dickenson with obtaining property by deception. She pleaded guilty to seven charges.

Describing her offence as “despicable”, a court in the state of Victoria sentenced Dickenson, now a real estate agent, to three months in jail, 150 hours of community work and treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse.