The mother of a young boy who met Prince Harry while fighting against cancer has admitted stealing money from kind-hearted well-wishers’ donations, that were offered to help fund his treatment.
Stacey Worsley appeared in Leeds Crown Court in England on Monday where she admitted to stealing £100,000 (AU$186,800) from her young son’s fund, which was created to raise money for his treatment of neuroblastoma, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported.
According to the publication, a court heard that the mother spent the stolen money – which was donated by a range of people and groups including Leeds United football team – on gambling.
Worsley, 32, was a trustee of the fund that was created to support little Toby Nye following his cancer diagnosis in January 2017 when he was just four years old.
The family had reached out for support from the community on crowdfunding page Just Giving, to help cover the £200,000 cost of intense chemotherapy and radiotherapy, as well as an operation to remove the main tumour on his kidney.
“At Christmas Toby became unwell, we took him to the doctors where we were told that he had a virus and he would be ok in a couple of days, however Toby became more ill and was so weak he was unable to walk,” the family explained on the website.
“We took him to A&E (accident and emergency) and on the 6th of January on Toby’s 4th birthday we were given the devastating news that Toby had stage 4 neuroblastoma we were absolutely devastated we didn’t know what to do.”
The goal was soon reached, with little Toby also receiving a visit from Prince Harry and an award for bravery during his cancer battle. Despite his courage and strength the young boy sadly passed away on January 12 this year due to a brain tumour.
Less than two months after her son’s death, Worsley was charged with fraud and pleaded guilty to using donated money for her own purposes, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported.
Speaking to the publication, a spokesperson at West Yorkshire Police claimed the fraud did not affect Toby’s medical treatment – adding that they had tracked down all the money involved in the case.
“As part of the investigation, police have secured the return of all the money involved with a view to the majority being used to support an identical local good cause, which is yet to be decided on, and an amount being redistributed to identified key donors,” they reportedly said.
“At no point did the fraud affect the child’s medical treatment, which was funded separately.”
Worsley was granted bail and is due to be sentenced on March 29.