Charlotte Roche conned boyfriend Matthew Pilgrim out of thousands of pounds by claiming she had cancer to fund plastic surgery (Picture: SWNS)

A callous woman cheated her boyfriend out of thousands of pounds by pretending she had cancer, when really she wanted the money for plastic surgery.

Charlotte Roche conned Matthew Pilgrim out of £14,000 and planned to use £4,000 of the money to pay for cosmetic surgery.

The 31-year-old, from Aberdeen, met Matthew on the dating website Plenty of Fish and they went for their first date near St Paul’s Cathedral in London in April 2014.

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Charlotte met Matthew on the dating website Plenty of Fish (Picture: SWNS)

Roche had told him she had ovarian cancer but he thought she had gone into remission, but she then told Matthew she was going to see a consultant.



Roche said surgery was needed to remove a growth on her ovaries or have them removed completely, adding that it would be a six-month wait on the NHS but could be done in a couple of days if she went private.

Matthew was so concerned and wanted to help her so he lent her £6,800 for the surgery.

Speaking at Maidstone Crown Court, Prosecutor Allister Walker said Matthew visited Roche at her home at weekends and she stayed with him in London.

Mr Walker added: ‘She then told him she had financial problems with her Irish bank account. In hindsight, she was laying the ground for what was to come.

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(File picture: Getty Images)

‘She only told him the operation was at a hospital in north London and did not take warmly to him visiting her there.’

Following the surgery, Roche asked her boyfriend to pay for private prescriptions and post-operative care and he gave her a further £2,000.

Matthew then did not see her for a while and it became clear the relationship was over, so he asked her to repay the money.

Mr Walker said: ‘He felt he had been exploited – and, of course, he had. The excuses continued to flow.’

Matthew only found out when Roche’s sister called him and told him he ‘had been had’ and to call the police.

Roche was arrested at work in October last year but escaped jail with a six-month suspended sentence after admitting fraud by false representation.

She was also ordered to complete 80 hours unpaid work and repay the £14,220 she conned from Matthew.

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