A woman who falsely claimed to have terminal cancer, defrauded her husband, his family and members of the public for thousands of pounds has been jailed for four years.
Jasmin Mistry, 36-year-old from Loughborough lied about a cancer diagnosis to convince family members and strangers to give her over £253,000 between 2015 and 2017.
She told her husband that she had brain cancer in 2013. And showed him a WhatsApp message from a person he thought was her doctor.
A police investigation found that the message was sent by Mistry herself, using a different SIM card.
Then in December 2014, Mistry added to the lie and told her husband that she had six months to live.
She then sent herself further fictitious messages, posing as a doctor who suggested that she could be treated in the US for the price of £500,000.
Mistry’s husband started to raise money for the cancer treatment and contacted friends and family to ask for donations.
Around twenty members of the fraudster’s extended family donated money to help her.
Mistry also pretended to be single and joined a dating website, where she met a man who gifted her nearly £7,500.
Her schemes extended beyond cancer. Mistry pretended to be a financial trader and told two members of the public that she could invest their money.
She convinced them to give her around £10,000.
Her lies were discovered when her husband’s friend saw a photograph of one of her purported brain scans. His friend found the same image on Google and explained that the pictured tumour would was so severe that it would be fatal to the person living with it.
Mistry’s husband discovered the SIM cards used by his wife and confronted her about the fraud.
Eventually his wife admitted that she had lied and couple have since divorced.
Police officers were contacted in November 2017 and Mistry was subsequently arrested and charged.
She told detectives that she did not know why she had lied.
Investigators reviewed her finances and medical records, which confirmed that she had never been diagnosed with brain cancer.
“Jasmin 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,” said DC Jon Bounds.
“This is a bizarre, shocking case.”
“I am glad for the victims of this deceit that they have seen justice.”
