A woman who faked a cancer diagnosis to swindle the Nhulunbuy community out of $10,000 has pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to fraud, forgery and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The court heard Cheryl Elizabeth Pryor, 40, had been living in the town before travelling in January last year to Sydney, where she claimed she had been admitted to hospital after being stabbed in the leg. Pryor told her then friend, who has asked not to be named, she had been diagnosed with leukaemia and throat cancer during her hospital stay. The friend offered to set up a GoFundMe account which she then posted to the Nhulunbuy Notice Board Facebook page. Crown prosecutor Naomi Loudon said community members donated a total of $14,387.31 to the fundraiser before police started investigating in March due to suspicions raised by locals. Pryor subsequently told police she was receiving chemotherapy under the care of Westmead Private Hospital professor Jonathan Carter but investigations revealed the hospital had no records of her as a patient.
