Hanna Dickenson, who used a fake cancer scam to bilk friends and family out of tens of thousands of dollars, has been sentenced to three months in jail.
The 24-year-old Australian woman used the reported $42,000 she took in for vacations and socializing instead of receiving the overseas medical treatment she alleged she’d needed, according to the BBC.
Dickenson pleaded guilty to seven counts of obtaining property by deception in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court. The judge referred to her actions as “despicable.”
Dickenson had "engaged in conduct that tears at the very heartstrings of human nature," magistrate David Starvaggi said during her sentencing, the BBC reported.
"People's desire to assist and social trust has been breached. These are people who worked hard and dug into their own pockets," he added.
One of Dickenson’s benefactors was himself a cancer victim, and reached into his pockets to give her $10,000 after he was discharged from the hospital.
Photographs Dickenson posted to her Facebook page led one of the scam’s donors to voice suspicions to the police that things weren’t on the up-and-up.
Her lawyer, Beverley Lindsay, argued against jail time, claiming her client had "turned her life around," the BBC reported.
As Ryan Wrecker, KMOX’s “Overnight America” host put it, “She's finding out that jail isn't a scam.”
Lindsay said she’ll likely appeal her client's sentence.
Twitter users chastised Dickenson.
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