Mum stole £100k from son’s cancer fund to pay for online gambling
A MOTHER who stole £100,000 from her dying son’s cancer fund to feed an online gambling addiction was spared jail by a judge yesterday.
Nurse Stacey Worsley, 32, placed bets from little Toby’s bedside using cash donated by friends and well-wishers for specialist therapy.
The youngster was six when he died in January after a twoyear battle against neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer.
More than £200,000 was raised through a Just Giving page to fund therapy that was not available on the NHS.
But Leeds Crown Court heard that Worsley, who initially gambled the money in a bid to increase the funds for Toby, soon became addicted.
At one stage she gambled away £20,000 in just 12 days.
The mother- of-three – who was the sole trustee of the fundraising page – had a number of online gambling accounts and would place bets from Leeds General Infirmary.
Yesterday she wept in the dock as Judge Guy Kearl QC said she had become ‘trapped in any parent’s worst nightmare’ and spared her jail by handing her a two-year suspended sentence.
Judge Kearl said: ‘This was a downward spiral, one that was doomed to failure.
‘No one could fail to be moved by your story.
‘You were under enormous pressure and I have no doubt that all of this started as a result of you wanting to raise the money for his treatment.’
Nicolas de la Poer, mitigating, said: ‘The gambling started with the best of intentions and became a distraction from the full horror of her situation.’
The judge was told that Worsley ran up £ 140,000 in gambling debts.
The cash has since been recovered from the online gambling companies and West Yorkshire Police currently holds around £135,000, which will be given back to major donors and other charities.
Police launched an investigation into Worsley shortly before Toby’s death on January 12.
She was charged with fraud by misrepresentation and pleaded guilty to the offence at a hearing less than four weeks after Toby died. Her sister Becky Worsley has claimed Worsley ‘ honestly believed she could win the money we needed for his treatment’.
She said her sister was ‘blinded by panic, worry and fear’ as she was ‘ petrified she would lose her son and in the process ended up addicted to gambling whilst frantically trying to win back what she lost’.
Thousands of people followed Toby’s brave but ultimately unsuccessful battle with cancer through social media posts from his family.
Worsley spoke about the fundraising effort in an interview last July. She said: ‘We said we would do whatever we needed to do to get the money.
‘We never thought for one minute we wouldn’t try because Toby needed it.’
Several months after the appeal began Leeds United Football Club stepped in to help and support from players, staff and fans enabled the £200,000 target to be reached.
Toby’s antibody treatment – to help his immune system attack neuroblastoma cells – appeared to go well at first. However, doctors later discovered a brain tumour the size of a golf ball.
They said there was nothing more they could do for Toby.
The news was a devastating blow to his mother, father Simon Nye, 32, and his siblings Ollie, eight, and two-year- old Sienna. Announcing his death in January, the family said the ‘little warrior’ died at home ‘in the arms of mummy and daddy’ and surrounded by his family.
‘He fought so hard to the end, he wasn’t in any pain and he was peaceful. I cannot even begin to explain how we are feeling right now, heartbroken doesn’t even come close.’
‘Trapped in a nightmare’