Woman who faked cancer to claim sick pay from Harrogate cancer charity jailed for £87,000 fraud

By Corinne Macdonald
Published 28th Feb 2019, 14:03 GMT
Updated 14th Mar 2019, 19:13 GMT

A woman who pretended she had cancer in an 'astonishingly unethical' fraud has been jailed for more than four years following an investigation by North Yorkshire Police.

Patricia Helen Robertshaw, 42, of Gisburn Road in Barrowford, Lancshire, who worked as an events manager at Yorkshire Cancer Research in Harrogate, put entries in her diary for fictitious hospital, chemotherapy and radiotherapy appointments and took extended periods of leave, claiming to be recovering from life-saving surgery.

Patricia Robertshaw, 42, was jailed for four years and five months after pretending to have cancer and defrauding the charity she worked for.placeholder image
Patricia Robertshaw, 42, was jailed for four years and five months after pretending to have cancer and defrauding the charity she worked for.

The North Yorkshire Police detective who led the investigation said it was “the most abhorrent fraud” he had ever investigated in 25 years as a police officer.

Robertshaw maintained the deceit for around two years, fraudulently claiming sick pay and time off from her employer.

While working for a previous employer, a university, she also forged leadership qualifications for 55 students for work they completed under her guidance.