Cancer conwoman Hanna Dickenson remanded in custody after judge dismisses fraud appeal
A convicted conwoman who faked cancer to fund her lavish party-girl lifestyle is finally behind bars after a judge slammed her lawyer’s attempt to keep the compulsive liar and fraud out of jail as “laughable”.
South East
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A serial fraudster who faked cancer to fund her party girl lifestyle will spend at least three months behind bars after it was revealed she allegedly lied to a magistrate.
Convicted conwoman Hanna Dickenson, 26, fronted the County Court today after she breached a community correction order imposed for a cancer fundraising rort.
Dickenson duped her parents into believing she had cancer and needed money for lifesaving treatment overseas.
As struggling farmers in the state’s northwest, her parents rallied up $42,000 from the local community — all for Dickenson to blow it on booze-filled party nights out with friends, drugs and luxury holidays.
She was originally sentenced to three months’ jail but had it knocked down to a community corrections order (CCO) on appeal.
Dickenson breached the order midway through last year when she attempted to rort $30,000 while working as an employment consultant for Max Employment in Oakleigh.
The conwoman was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to another three-month jail term but immediately appealed the decision.
It was revealed during today’s appeal that Dickenson has been charged with further offending including making and using a false document.
The court heard Dickenson allegedly provided a fake reference to Magistrate Sarah Leighfield during a plea hearing for her Max Employment scam.
Dickenson faces other charges for allegedly using other people’s identity to acquire mobile phones, and a Commonwealth offence relating to the disability pension, the court heard.
Her lawyer submitted Dickenson should be placed on another CCO for breaching her CCO.
The lawyer also recommended she be placed on a CCO for her Max Employment offending.
Judge Paul Lacava found the submission “laughable”.
“I’ll be turning the sentencing regime into a laughing stock (if I placed her on another CCO),” Judge Lacava said.
“The public would lose complete faith in the sentencing process … it will just be laughed at by the public.”
Judge Lacava questioned how he could rely on Dickenson’s history, including a claim made to a psychiatrist that she had been raped in the United States.
“This is the first time I’ve heard about this (the rape claim) … it seems to me to be a matter I should have real doubt about,” Judge Lacava said.
Judge Lacava said the public needed to be protected from Dickenson.
“This is fraud on a reasonably serious but frequent scale,” Judge Lacava said.
“Everyone she comes into contact with is lied to.
“She can’t be allowed to get away with this.
“Telling people you need money for overseas cancer treatment then spending the money on a holiday.
“It’s an outrageous abuse of people’s trust (which) relies on the old weapon of having people pity you.”
Dickenson, who the court heard had lap band surgery for “weight issues”, was remanded for sentencing on Monday.
Judge Lacava said he would not uphold the appeal.
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