Woman who faked cancer sentenced to house arrest

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A St. Catharines woman who pretended to be dying of cancer in order to defraud a senior citizen out of her life savings has been sentenced to house arrest.

Michelle Meade will serve a two-year less a day conditional sentence, followed by three years probation.

Meade met 82-year-old Jean Beausart shortly after she started dating her grandson in 2007. The romance with the grandson was short-lived, but Meade and Beausart bonded.

“I was going to adopt her. She was like a daughter to me,” said Beausart.

When Meade professed to need money for treatment, Beausart provided it. Eventually she cashed in her savings and borrowed against her house until she couldn’t afford the mortgage. It went on for four years until the senior only had five dollars to her name.

She became a recluse, and a neighbour got worried and called police. They took it from there.

The total sum of the fraud was about $200,000 but Beausart was able to get banks and other lenders to forgive the majority of it. Meade has to pay her back $75,000 over five years, or she’ll breach her probation.

Meade was convicted of fraud in 1999 and again in 2008. When Meade was 24, she started dating a 51-year-old. She told him she was dying of cancer and he started providing $1,800 a week. It turned out the money went into Meade’s then-husband’s account.