The friend of a conwoman who faked having cancer in order to fund her luxury lifestyle has said that she is no longer angry and doesn't believe she is "evil", but mentally ill.
Nicole Elkabbas, then 40, told friend Jo Mapp at the funeral of a close friend that her ovarian cancer was back - and later suggested that they start fundraising for "life-saving" treatment abroad.
But Jo had no idea that her friend had been lying and it was only when a photo that Nicole shared of herself in hospital that saw her rumbled.
Speaking to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning, Jo revealed that she had helped Nicole set up her fundraising page after she had been told the ex-Harrods manager had gone through three operations and six rounds of chemotherapy and urgently needed to pay through a breakthrough drug in Spain.
Jo, who met Nicole 10 years ago, said: "She told me at a friend's funeral... she told me that her cancer's come back but she 'heroically' said that today's not about her.
"I got in touch with her a couple of days later to see if I could help," Jo continued. "She suggested fundraising because she could get treatments abroad."
However, when Nicole shared a photo of herself in hospital, some noticed discrepancies with the image and she was shopped to the police. It later emerged that the photo had been taken as she was recovering at a private hospital in Kent following a gallbladder operation.
"I was really, really shocked and I was in disbelief that it was true," Jo said. "I maintained that she was innocent."
Eventually, Jo came to terms with what her friend has done, but said that she doesn't believe Nicole is "evil".
She added: "I'm at that point where I think it's an undiagnosed illness."
Nicole was jailed for two years and nine months, with Judge Mark Weekes blasting Nicole's "cunning and manipulative" deception, adding that it was "insulting to those who must genuinely and courageously face the battle against cancer".
And viewers were disgusted by the story, slamming the con-woman as "truly evil".
One tweeted: "People who do this make you become very wary of donating to causes. Which is awful for those genuine causes #thismorning."
While another fumed: "You don’t think she’s evil? wow. She conned £45k out of people by FAKING CANCER. If that’s not evil then I don’t know what is #thismorning."
A third raged: "I know her friends don’t think she’s evil but I think she is. Deceiving her friends, getting her friends to fundraiser for her, lying to her friends about having this horrible disease (when there are people genuinely suffering) That is truly evil #thismorning."
"F***ing hate people that do this. It’s evil. #ThisMorning," another seethed.
*This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV
