Ellen Danagher, 48, of Welwyn Garden City (pictured outside St Albans Crown Court today) told her family she had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2009
A woman told her family she had bowel cancer to con them out of £21,000 - despite four of her closest relatives suffering from the disease, a court heard.
Ellen Danagher, 48, of Welwyn Garden City, told her family she had been diagnosed with the disease in 2009.
She claimed after suffering an autoimmune condition 10 years earlier she was not eligible for conventional NHS treatment and would have to crowdfund between £160,000 and £180,000.
Danagher told her family they would have to come up with £21,000 to help with the crowdfunding effort.
Her sister Kathleen Young and brothers Patrick and John Mullins each donated £7,000 to her cause.
When they found out she was lying she was arrested and charged with three counts of fraud, which she denies.
Giving evidence at St Albans Crown Court today her sister branded her 'very sick mentally' given that she, her brother, father and uncle have all had bowel cancer.
Mrs Young told the court: 'We just thought we had to get the money for her, and we did. We had no reason not to believe her. She's our sister and we loved her.'
'This is a terrible thing that has happened to our family. I don't understand why she has done this. She must be very sick mentally.'
Opening the case to the jury, prosecutor Robin Miric told them: 'This is a case of fraud.
'This defendant made false representations to her family which proved to be fraudulent.
'In 2009 Mrs Danagher declared to her family she had a form of bowel cancer.'
Her sister Kathleen Young (pictured outside St Albans Crown Court today) was one of her three siblings that raised £7,000 to help with her treatment
Mr Miric said Danagher had told her sister and two brothers she had been offered 'a new and innovative treatment which she thought would be successful in treating her condition.'
He also said she showed them a letter that purported to be from a professor at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and addressed to her, discussing the treatment.
It appeared to be from a professor at the hospital, beginning: 'Dear Ellen, it was a pleasure to meet you on Wednesday and, if positivity was a cure, I would bottle yours.'
The letter went on to say 'Stage 1 of her treatment would be at The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford' and she might be required to be an inpatient for two days.
In the witness box, Mrs Young said her sister told the family that because she had been diagnosed with Lupus in 1999 or 2000 it meant she couldn't have the normal treatment for bowel cancer.
She said her sister quoted figures of £160,000 and £180,000 and that 'as a family we have to fund around £21,000.'
She said her brothers Patrick and John each gave Danagher £7,000 and she and her husband came up with a further £7,000.
Siblings Patrick (pictured left outside court today) and John Mullins (right) also gave evidence after claiming they were tricked out of donating £7,000 to their sister's treatment
Mrs Young said she continued to give her sister further amounts of money, adding 'I used to give her '£150 per month for organic food to help her... I did that for a number of years.'
She told the court how, on one occasion while travelling on a train, Danagher had texted her.
Mrs Young went on: 'I had a text message from her saying she had three to five years to live.'
She said: 'I never questioned her really, I just believed everything.'
She said her sister would tell the family how the tumour in her bowel was shrinking, but she had also developed bone cancer, which was 'localised in her back'.
Mrs Young said she and her husband took out a loan for around £5,000 when her sister approached her again saying that she needed extra treatment on her kidney.
She said she knew her sister had paid some of the money back, but by 2016, she still owed her around £12,000.
Mrs Young said she, herself, was diagnosed with bowel cancer and it was around this time that her sister had stopped paying any money back to her.
She said told the jury that it had been around 2014 when she began to have doubts about her sister's story that she had cancer.
Mrs Young said it happened after there was a story in the media about a child who was unable to get treatment for cancer in this country and had been taken abroad.
She said she wondered why at the time a child was being deprived of treatment in this country when her sister had received treatment.
Giving evidence at St Albans Crown Court (pictured) today her sister Mrs Young branded her 'very sick mentally' given that she, her brother, father and uncle have all had bowel cancer
'I asked her a number of times and she was getting more and more vague,' she added.
Asked if she'd ever confronted her sister outright, Mrs Young replied: 'No I never asked her outright, I just didn't want to believe she could do this.
She said eventually she and her brothers hired a private detective to look into Danagher's claims and, as a result, the police were called in.
Also giving evidence, Mrs Danagher's brother Patrick Mullins told the jury how he was told she had to undergo specialist treatment because of a previous Lupus condition and couldn't go through the NHS.
Mr Mullins said his wife Susan, who was close to Ellen Danagher, was 'distraught' at the thought of her dying.
He said that was why he, his sister Kathleen and brother John, decided to contribute £7,000 each to her treatment programme.
Mr Mullins said, as far as he knew, his sister had undergone treatment and seemed to be okay.
He was also asked about the letter she had produced, which he said had been sent to her from The Royal Marsden Hospital discussing her cancer.
He said he was 'shocked' when he saw it and thought it was genuine.
'There was no reason to think that the information that had been given wasn't correct,' he added.
He said it was in 2015 that he eventually confronted Danagher and she admitted lying about her condition.
'She accepted it. She said she wasn't ill. I said 'Why did you lie to us?' and she said 'I did lots of good things, so why pull me up about this?''
He said he has not spoken to her since.
Danagher's other brother John Mullins, told the jury that 'it was a nasty shock' when he heard of his sister's 'diagnosis'.
He said that following a family meeting, 'I was asked to contribute a figure of around about £7,000.' This, he said, was to go towards the treatment his sister required.
Under cross examination, he denied he had received 'thousands' back from his sister and said the true sum amounted to just £200-£300.
The jury heard a statement from Professor Martin Gore at The Royal Marsden Hospital, whose name had appeared at the bottom of the letter that Ellen Danagher had shown her family.
In the statement, he said that the hospital had not been able to find any record of the defendant on the electronic patient system and he said a reference number was 'too long' to be a Royal Marsden number.
The professor said he didn't see patients for the condition referred to in the letter, which he said had been written 'not in my style.'
He also said that the heading and logo on the letter 'didn't look right.' The trial continues.
Linkhienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/11/21/welwyn-garden-city-woman-ellen-danagher-fraud-family-21000-lying-about-having-bowel-cancer/
Main photo article
Ellen Danagher, 48, of Welwyn Garden City (pictured outside St Albans Crown Court today) told her family she had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2009
A woman told her family she had bowel cancer to con them out of £21,000 – despite four of her closest relatives suffering from the ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/21/13/6473496-6414095-image-m-61_1542806727189.jpg
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