Man feigned cancer to defraud family

Peter Beal

Glenn Rycroft, a former airline steward, was told by Judge John Burke QC, at Manchester Crown Court in England, that his actions had been “mean, wicked and indeed heartless”.

Rycroft, of Derby Road, Salford, Greater Manchester, had pleaded guilty on Thursday to 25 counts of deception.

He embarked on a campaign of fraud by persuading friends and relatives to invest amounts as large as £50,000 a time in a fictitious British Airways investment scheme that never existed.

He then claimed to be dying from a brain tumour and accepted further amounts of thousands of pounds while enjoying an extravagant lifestyle and trips abroad on the pretext of receiving treatment at the world’s best cancer hospitals.

Sentencing Rycroft, 27, the judge told him: “You embarked on this most extraordinary campaign of deceit that had as its object the theft of thousands of pounds.

“Your victims, who parted with, in some cases, their life savings entrusted you with their money and included members of your own family and close friends.

“If that were not mean enough, you later pretended you were suffering from cancer and went to ingenious lengths to substantiate those claims.”

Maurice Greene, prosecuting, said that the total amount of money involved was just over £200,000.

He said Rycroft had behaved in a “calculated” way and deceived many people.

Mr Greene said that while pretending to be suffering from cancer, Rycroft was in fact “living the high life and enjoying himself with other people’s money”.

In nine months he went on eight trips abroad at a cost of around £28,000 staying in five-star hotels.

On many of the trips he would take friends with him who never suspected that his illness was a pretence.

Rycroft, who had his head shaved to add to the deceit that he was being treated for the illness, also poured other people’s money into a string of unprofitable businesses.

His defence counsel, Toby Hedworth QC said Rycroft wanted to publicly apologise to his victims. He said Rycroft was now bankrupt and a “broken man”.

He said Rycroft had told police, when asked to explain his deception: “Basically, I had this vision or dream to run my own shops and businesses, have lots of shops, be successful and have loads of money.”

He said he had always intended to pay the victims of his investment scam back.

“For some reason, for which I have no explanation, I decided to say I had cancer. From then on, it was just as if I was being whisked along. It all just happened, like this benefit night. I’m truly sorry for all that.”

The court was told that after his deception came to light, Rycroft tried to kill himself by dousing himself and the inside of his car in petrol and swerving into the central barrier of the A1 (M) motorway near Doncaster. But he was pulled from the burning wreckage by two courageous motorists.

After Rycroft was jailed, his former close friend Alan Kan, 25, whose mother Gwen handed over her life savings of £50,000 to the bogus investment scheme, said the family felt “betrayed” by him.

“Glenn’s callous actions will stay with us for a long time to come. He systematically targeted friends and family who were more than content to help a friend in need. For our loyalty and trust, we were rewarded with betrayal and a lot of heartache,” said Mr Kan.