Using donations to gamble
A mom who gambled away £100,000 ($121,500) of a cancer treatment fund for her son has been ordered to pay back half.
Stacey Worsley’s six-year-old son, Toby Nye, died in January from neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that forms in certain tissue.
She is to repay the money to seven unnamed victims within 28 days.
After treatment offered by the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) failed, Toby’s family started an appeal fund to raise money, reports the Daily Star.
However, at a time when Worsely was facing “extraordinary pressure,” which included the care of her two young children, she turned to gambling. She used the money as a way of increasing the money already donated to help her son.
As a result, she lost around £140,000 ($170,000) on betting sites between January 2017 and last March. She was also the only trustee of the fund.
Leeds Crown Court has ordered her to pay back £54,478.44 ($66,180) of the money that was donated to her son’s treatment fund. She is to repay the money to seven unnamed victims within 28 days. She has also been given a two-month suspended sentence. However, if she fails to repay the money, she will go to jail for a year.
Speaking about this “difficult case”, recorder Paul Greaney QC noted that:
The reaching of an agreement between the parties is highly appropriate and is to be applauded.”
Stealing charity funds
This isn’t the first instance where money donated to a charitable cause was used to gamble with.
In June, it was reported that a certified public accountant was given a seven-year sentence after stealing $1.35m from a nonprofit charity to fund his gambling habit. He was initially handed a 57-month prison sentence, which was then increased to seven years.
The judge extended the accountant’s sentence because the money was supposed to be used for community care needs.