A SERIAL Swan Hill con woman who faked cancer to swindle money has ditched her bid to be freed from jail after being warned an appeal could result in more time behind bars.
County Court judge Peter Lauritsen warned Hanna Dickinson, 28, on Wednesday he thought she had got off lightly for her latest deceptive offending.
By law, he said, he was required to indicate at the earliest possible stage of an appeal if he would impose a greater penalty.
“It is possible I would impose a greater penalty than what was imposed by the magistrate,” he said.
Defence lawyer Felicity Fox quickly indicated they would no longer pursue the appeal.
The appeal related to a four-month jail term she was handed in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in October for mocking up a reference from her manager to show the court her good character in another fraud case she was facing.
Dickinson pleaded guilty to making a false document.
She produced the fake reference – purported to be from her boss at the aged and disability support service HenderCare she was working – at a plea hearing in February last year for engaging in identity theft to get a car loan.
Dickinson first rose to notoriety when the party girl duped her parents into believing she had cancer and needed money for lifesaving treatment overseas.
Her parents raised $42,000 from the local community – all for Dickenson to blow it on booze-filled party nights out with friends, drugs and luxury holidays.
She was jailed for three months, but appealed and was instead placed on a two-year community correction order (CCO).
It was while on the CCO that she used the identification details of one of her vulnerable clients at an employment agency to try to get a $30,000 car loan.
Dickinson is also serving a 12-month sentence for falsely telling Centrelink she had cancer and claiming more than $100,000 through the disability support pension.
Pretending to be the client’s mother, she went into a dealership armed with identification documents she had forged with the signature of a pharmacist for certification.
