A wealthy businessman ruthlessly conned by his girlfriend – who tried to fleece him of his cash by falsely claiming to have cancer – has told how he was stuck in a ‘controlling and abusive’ relationship.
Company director Jon Leonard was taken in by the lies of Laura McPherson, 35, who went to extraordinary lengths to make him believe she was dying so he would lavish expensive gifts on her.
The ‘wicked and devious’ mother of two claimed she had cervical, ovarian, colon, bowel and breast cancer and even allowed her young daughter to believe she was terminally ill.
Despite the cruelty of her con, McPherson avoided a prison sentence when she appeared before Derby Crown Court on Wednesday and was instead given a community order.
Today Mr Leonard has broken his silence about her manipulation of him and her children and the shattering ordeal he has been through over ‘eight painful years.’
Taking to Instagram, he said: ‘I don’t post any really personal things on socials, but this needs to be read.
‘Today marks the end of eight painful years. It’s been a really tough few years and I’m proud of myself for holding it together and want to thank all my friends and work colleagues that have supported me.
‘It’s impossible to put into words the impact this has had on my mental wellbeing. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted today.
John Leonard arriving at Derby Crown Court for the sentencing of his ex-girlfriend
Laura McPherson avoided a prison sentence when she appeared before Derby Crown Court on Wednesday and was instead given a community order
‘In January 2022 I became 99% certain that my ex partner, Laura Macpherson, had been lying to everyone about having cancer since 2017.
I immediately moved out and via my solicitor asked her to provide proof of having cancer and gave her five months to move out of my house.
‘She declined to provide proof, and instead said it was disgusting for me to suggest she had been lying. She then proceeded to start telling people she had dumped me because I was abusive towards her.
‘She was sent a solicitor’s letter asking her to stop spreading lies. She replied, saying she would stop and she didn’t.
‘I tried talking to her family to ask them to speak to her, but they refused. I felt I was left with no option, but to have her arrested for fraud, so the truth would come out.
‘The charge was receiving money by misrepresentation, falsifying having cancer. This was for all the money I had given her supposedly for cancer treatment, tens of thousands of pounds.
‘The police arrested her in November 2022. She answered no comment in interview and refused to provide any proof of having cancer. The police then obtained her medical records via court order, and confirmed she had never had cancer, and has in fact been in perfect health.
‘She finally pleaded guilty in October 2024, when faced with a mountain of evidence.’
Laura McPherson claimed she had cervical, ovarian, colon, bowel and breast cancer
The 35-year-old told company director Laura McPherson arrives at Derby Crown Court
Mr Leonard, 44, then quoted the remarks of Judge Jonathan Straw as he sentenced McPherson.
He told her: ‘You are a wicked and devious liar, who embarked on five years of deceit. It is difficult to imagine how an individual could be so calculated and cruel to those who loved and cared for her.
‘This was a sophisticated offence involving significant planning, which was carried out over a sustained period of time. This is a high impact offense that has had a serious and detrimental effect on Mr. Leonard, both financially and emotionally. ‘
McPherson was sentenced to a two-year community sentence, avoiding two and half years in jail due to recently having had a child.
Mr Leonard said: ‘The fact she had a child was a shock as she told everyone she’d had a hysterectomy at a private clinic in Austria, which I’d given her money for.
‘It turns out she was actually at a five-star spa instead of having the operation.
‘She made it all up for attention and money. I was stuck in a controlling and abusive relationship that I felt I couldn’t leave for five years because she supposedly had cancer.
‘I am honestly glad it’s finally over. It’s left an eight year long dent in my life and I am happy the truth is finally out. Time to start my life with an exciting year ahead surrounded by outstanding people. Let’s go 2025.’
Mr Leonard said his ex-girlfriend was a ‘wicked and devious liar who embarked on five years of deceit’
At the time of her lies, McPherson was working as a marketing director for her boyfriend’s company, Ultra Events, which has helped raise over £39 million for charitable causes
Mr Leonard’s sister, Lauren, posted a tribute to him.
She said: ‘I am so so proud of Jon Leonard. There is nowhere else I would have rather been today than watching this chapter of your life close.
‘You are without doubt such an inspiration. Me and the kids are so proud of Uncle Jon. Of everything he has achieved and the good he has done in the world.
‘It is your time now my friend and we cannot wait to watch you rocket.’
At the hearing, Judge Straw told McPherson: ‘It is difficult to imagine how an individual could be so calculating and cruel to those that loved and cared for her.
‘It was a deliberate, narcissistic route to attention and money.’
The court heard she tricked Mr Leonard, who runs Ultra Events, a platform for charities, into giving her £24,248.52 for treatments he thought might save her life.
This included a trip to the Mayr Resort on Lake Worthersee in Austria where she enjoyed a holistic, weight loss programme, as well as breast augmentation treatment in Manchester.
McPherson was handed a community order and will be subject to a 7pm to 6am curfew for five nights of the week after pleading guilty to fraud at an earlier hearing
Mr Leonard runs Ultra Events, a platform for charities, and gave her £24,248.52 for treatments he thought might save her life
In an emotional victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Leonard said she had stolen eight years of his life and left him with ‘feelings of total despair, wracked by self-doubt and emotionally scarred’
She was, he said, a compulsive liar who had told friends and even her young daughter that she had cancer.
This involved him taking calls from McPherson’s daughter’s school, because she had broken down worrying her mother was going to die.
‘Even after pleading guilty, she has spent the last three years spreading disgusting lies about me,’ he said, ‘And she has never shown any remorse.’
He said he had been ‘gaslighted’ and described being woken up by her screaming at him for sleeping through when she had been up all night being sick.
At one point he bought her a £30,000 Rolex that she wanted, reasoning that it was wrong to deny it to someone whose life would soon end.
At one point he got in touch with one of Britain’s leading private cancer specialists and arranged an appointment for her but she insisted she would rather stick with her NHS treatment.
He said it even caused him to fall out with his oldest friend who had become deputy head of nursing at a hospital in Swansea.
Judge Jonathan Straw said of McPherson’s (pictured) behaviour: ‘It was a deliberate, narcissistic route to attention and money’
He told Mr Leonard aspects of McPherson’s treatment did not add up and that you, ‘wouldn’t be going straight to the gym after having chemotherapy’.
‘I was prepared to fall out with my friend,’ he said, ‘I was left completely isolated.’
At the time of her lies, McPherson was working as a marketing director for her boyfriend’s company, Ultra Events, which has helped raise over £39 million for charitable causes.
Prosecutor Siward James-Moore said the couple had met in 2011 and that she was very well provided for by her partner whose business was doing well.
In March 2017 she first announced she had cervical cancer and was receiving treatment at the Royal Derby Hospital.
Despite his offers to accompany her to her various appointments, she always insisted on going alone.
‘Between 2018 and 2022 she variously said she had ovarian, colon, bowel and breast cancer,’ said Mr James-Moore.
‘She claimed to have travelled for treatment to the Mayr Clinic in Austria (at Mr Leonard’s expense).’
The couple had met in 2011 and was very well provided for by her partner whose business was doing well
In 2020 she claimed to have had a hysterectomy.
‘Strangely she was pictured up a mountain two days later,’ said the prosecutor.
The same year she said that she would need a mastectomy but used the opportunity to have breast augmentation surgery in Manchester at Mr Leonard’s expense.
On New Year’s Eve 2021, Mr Leonard dropped her off for treatment to her cervix.
When he asked for a selfie, she told him that she was on a drip and her phone had broken. In fact, she had taken a taxi to Coventry to celebrate the New Year.
When arrested and questioned over the allegation of fraud in 2022, she denied it and accused her boyfriend of being controlling.
In mitigation, her barrister Laura Pitman, said that she suffered from, ‘depression, anxiety and symptoms of trauma’.
She said she was now supported by her parents and a new partner Alex and had a baby last March.
McPherson pictured climbing Mt Kilimanjaro – The tallest mountain in Africa – while saying she had cancer
She called on the judge to spare her jail and instead give her intensive intervention from the probation service to find out why she’d acted as she had.
Ms Pitman said her client has no previous convictions of any kind and ‘accepts her behaviour spans a number of years’ and that she has suffered from anxiety and depression. She said: ‘One perhaps wonders why a young woman behaved in the way that she has.
‘She feels awful for the way she behaved. She has sought outside support to look at her behaviour. There has been no further offending by her. There’s a more constructive way Laura McPherson can be dealt with rather than custody.’
She was handed a community order and will be subject to a 7pm to 6am curfew for five nights of the week after pleading guilty to fraud at an earlier hearing.
The judge also ordered her to spend 30 days with the probation service and warned her that if she broke either then he would send her immediately to prison.
A further hearing date of June 6 was set for a proceeds of crime hearing.
