Mother who stole £100k from son’s cancer fund is spared prison
A MOTHER who launched a crowdfunding effort for her son who had cancer spent £100,000 of the money on online gambling, a court heard.
The site was set up to raise money for Toby Nye, a four-year-old boy from Leeds who was undergoing treatment for neuroblastoma, with the intention that the money would go towards therapy not available on the NHS. The fundraising target of £200,000 was achieved after Leeds United FC became involved in the campaign.
However Stacey Worsley, his mother, 32, spent the money donated to her son on online betting.
Leeds Crown Court heard Worsley, who had a number of online gambling accounts, would place bets as she sat at Toby’s bedside at Leeds General Infirmary in the hope of boosting his treat- ment fund, but her losses mounted up.
The nurse, who has two other children aged seven and two, was the sole trustee of the Justgiving page and in November 2017, ran up £140,000 in gambling debts.
Guy Kearl QC, the Recorder of Leeds, told Worsley, who wept in the dock, that she had betrayed the donators’ confidence by her dishonesty. “This was a downward spiral, one that was doomed to failure,” he said. However he acknowledged that she was trapped in “any parent’s worst nightmare” and added “no one could fail to be moved by your story”.
“I have no doubt that all of this started as a result of you wanting to raise the money for his treatment,” he said. The judge also noted that Worsley had not spent any of the money on luxuries for herself.
Toby, who died in January, was diagnosed with the rare cancer on his fourth birthday in 2017.
Nicholas de la Poer, mitigating, said: “The gambling started with the best of intentions and became a distraction from the full horror of her situation.”
Worsley was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years after she pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position between January 2017 and March last year.