Kielder. I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. A christ churchwoman told friends she was dying of cancer. They grieved and gave thousands to help her. But then the unthinkable happened.
It was all the fast.
Nicola Flint is accused of forging medical letters and defrauding a rugby club of more than one hundred thousand dollars. Today on the Front Page, senior crime reporter and host of A Moment in Crime and Elease has been diving into this case with a special two part series on Flint's diagnosis deception. She joins us. Now, first off, Anna, let's set the scene. How did this start?
So Nikola Flint told friends that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
And you know, this is a really good friend.
She's telling her best friends that she's found the slump in her breast and she's had it tested and it is cancer. And then over the next seven years that lie grew and grew and grew, and everyone believed that she had staged four terminal cancer. That you know, she was about to leave two children without a mum, that they were you know, they were helping her plan her funeral and where her ashes would be scattered, and you know, doing things for her kids and planning on how they
would help look after the kids. There was just this web of lies of that she was telling different friends different things about her treatment and you know, different explanations for why she wasn't having chemo and she was having this and that, and it just you know, these were her best friends and nobody really thought to question her on it. You know, she told her children she was dying. She was helping them get ready for when mummy wasn't there. So they were like, well, you wouldn't do that if
you weren't really really sick. And she just sucked so many people in with this absolute fantasy of you know, having cancer, and we now know, and the police have said very openly that there is no evidence Nikola Flint has ever been diagnosed with cancer.
Isn't that incredible? Imagine your friend coming up to you first, first, and foremost. There are a lot of people out there who have had a friend or a loved one come up to them and say and have that conversation and say that they have cancer and have those real life talks as well. Those friends would have felt completely and utterly dumbfounded when they found out. When did it start to unravel for her?
In twenty twenty four, it all started to unravel when she was investigated for a lot of money going missing from a football club where she was working, and you know, that sort of came out and she was charged with taking one hundred thousand dollars from the football club. And she, you know, was saying to the friends, Oh, it's it's not what it looks like. I'm innocent. But at the same time she fled the country, she went to the UK.
The friends were still you know, at that point no question that this this poor woman, she's so sack and now she's got this and you know, and then the a friend had found some letters that Nicola had given her from a cancer specialist. You know, oh, here's the latest update on my condition. And the friend went, what if she doesn't have cancer, Let's go back to those letters and just see what's what. And she was reading through this letter and she's like, I think that I
don't think this is real. I think this has been copying pasted, and the signature didn't look right, and the letter had looked funny. So that letter eventually was obtained by the police and they checked up and these these cancer doctors whose signatures were on these letters were like, that's not me. I didn't write that, that's not my medical opinion. And as I said, police were able to publicly say, there's no evidence Nikola Flint ever was diagnosed
with cancer. You know, by then, she'd told people early on that she had survival cancer, and then it was its back and its breast cancer, and she was telling people who you know, one of her friends who I spoke to, she'd lost her mum to cancer when she was a tiny, tiny child, so she'd grown up without a mum. And you know, she said to me, I know the hole that cancer leaves. And I was never going to question a friend, you know, I just wanted
to support her. There was another friend whose husband had died, and Nichola had supported her through her husband dying from cancer. So you know, and as I said, her children were told they were being prepared for when Mom's not here. She taught her daughter how to braid her own hair for when I'm gone, then you can do it yourself. So when the police dropped this bombshell that there's no
evidence of this woman ever having cancer. Everyone sort of just went wow, and the friends started to effectively compare notes and realize that all been absolutely.
Lied to and scammed.
For lack of a better word, but they've all told me that Nikola had a way of keeping them separate.
It was a bit of a divide and conquer.
She would tell them things about each other to make them wary of each other, to make them cautious. She'd say things like, oh, well, have you heard this, Chelsea's been saying this about you, but don't tell her I told you this, or don't tell such and such about
my latest diagnosis. So all these friends were sort of pushed apart and kept apart, so you know, they weren't talking amongst each other about Nikola, so where there were red flags, they sort of felt guilty for thinking that up until police came out and said, well, there is no cancer.
And it's interesting as well.
People might listen to this and think, how could they not have known? Right, and everybody does and that's completely normal. But when you've got that trusting relationship with your friend, you're being told all of these different things and you're given evidence. It seems oh like that of a better word. Would you question your friend?
And this is the thing. These women that I've spoken to were her good friends. They considered her family. You know, their kids thought each other, they were their second moms, and they just there was no question. Your friend comes to and says I should have got cancer and you don't question that. Yeah, you would go immediately and to say, really, do you call that place, have some evidence, let's see all of the stuff.
Yeah, but then she did have these letters that backed it up.
And you know, she would turn up to things and she would have a plaster on her arm because she'd had this treatment, or you know, she would be dropped off at places or should be booked in for things, and you know, people were like, well, she's definitely having treatment, but no, none of it was true.
So what has she officially been charged?
So she's facing around nine charges and the christ which just recurt The majority of those are for the theft and basically the misappropriation of funds from this football club. But there is also a number of charges for forging documents and these are the cancer specialist letters and the charge is worded that she forged the documents with intent to have people believe she had cancer and in some cases to obtain financial advantage.
It is alleged that she used.
One of the cancer letters to medically retire from Amzi Bank, where she'd worked for many years. They paid her eighty four thousand dollars in a medical retirement package because she had terminal cancer, and so she's charged with fraudulently providing them that letter in order to get that money. So I think the total of the money that she's accused of stealing is one hundred and eighty plus thousand dollars.
I genuinely thought that she had cancer. She would go into great detail about some of the symptoms that she was experiencing and that were horrific treatments she was having. Occasionally there would be a band aid on her forearm because she was having treatment. Occasionally you'd think, oh my gosh, really what I remember asking how are you going to have chemotherapy? And you know, I was told that the
type of cancer she had didn't react chemotherapy. And you know this went on for years, years like five six seven.
And you mentioned as well, you've spoken to her friends. When speaking to them, how did they come across were they anger? I mean, I suppose that they're going through all of these stages of grief, right.
I mean, they've been grieving her for years. You know, they had you know, her best friend came out from the UK and Nikola took her up to Marpu at the top of the South Island and they sat and she said, this is where my ashes will be scattered. So Emma was grieving her for years, and every time she left New Zealand, she was like the last time I'm going to see my childhood best friend. And she was racked with guilt and she's always so worried about the kids.
And then you know, when all this came out, she just was so angry.
And a lot of them were bewildered, and a lot of them have spoken about you know, they had these moments where they sort of think of Nickola and they think, oh, that poor woman. Hang on a minute, and so you know, some of them have had to retrain the way they think about it because they go to this place of grief and upset when they think about Nickola, and then
they're like, hang on, if it was true. Some of them still have moments where they think, but what if it was, and then they just remember that police officer on national television saying there is no evidence Nikola Flint was ever diagnosed with cancer.
They're angry and they're hurt. They just feel really betrayed.
Some of them, you know, paid for things, you know. One friend said that every time she did something with Nicholas, she would pay but dinners, lunches, you know, just to make sure that was spending her money on cancer treatment.
Her friend in the UK, the best friend from childhood, her parents gave something like thirty thousand pound because Nikola had said she didn't have money to pay for a cancer top up, which meant she could have unlimited treatment in New Zealand and so they when Emma told her parents this, the parents went straight and transferred the money to New Zealand. So, you know, that's a lot of money that was given to her full cancer treatment for a disease she just did not have. So her friends
feel ripped off and they feel foolish. They know that it's not their fault, and they know that they were you know, they've said they were groomed, and they've talked about how manipulative she was, how devious and how clever, you know, keeping them all apart and keeping the story separate, and making sure that they weren't talking to each other, just to keep up this this web of lies how they've described it.
And you can imagine, well, people, and that's no fault of their own at all, because I can imagine a situation where if I ever a touch would got cancer. My best friend's parents would chip in as well. It's a completely normal thing to do. When you love someone and you're really close to someone, you do anything. You would do anything you can.
I mean, cancer is a cruel and hideous disease, and if someone that you're close to, you know, is diagnosed, then you want to move heaven and earth to make sure that you can do everything you can to lighten their load. And that's what these friends were doing. And it's just they're just so, you know, shocked, outraged that they were just taken for such a ride.
And you've spoken to some family members as well, Hey.
Her husband's so I've spoken to her husband's sister and another member of the family.
Who are just appalled.
They had fallen out with Nikola before this cancer diagnosis over other lies. They say that we're told and just when they heard about the cancer. You know, they were reaching out and trying to do what they could, but they were suspicious. They've never found her to be an honest person, but they never thought, you know, it would
get this bad. They told they say that she would say things like, you know, she grew up in a house like Downton Abbey, and you know she was Banker of the Year in Bermuda, where she'd been working, and there was just story after story, and they would just think, well, most of the time, she's pretty normal. So these weird stories, you know, they're just it's just Nickola. But they're just disgusted and what she's done. They're really upset. You know,
Nicholas fled the country with her husband and kids. They just haven't had contact with the kids, and they just want the kids to know how much they're loved and missed by their family in New Zealand. They want Nicholas husband Andrew to know how much they're loved and missed. And I think that, you know, they've lost lot more
than just a friend. They've lost contact with people that they really really love, and they're pretty angry because they feel that that's you know, Nikola has manipulated their family away from them.
And you mentioned obviously she fled to the UK. Do we have any idea where they are now?
We believe they're in Wales. She has family living in Wales.
When they first went to the UK, she moved in with her best friend Emma and stayed with her for a while, still maintaining she was having cancer treatment and that sort of thing. And then they fell out and Nicola and Andrew and the kids went to Wales and then that's the last Emma's had contact with them, So we don't.
Know exactly where they are.
I've reached out to Nicola and Andrew a number of times asking them to get in touch, giving both of them the opportunity to have a chat about what's gone on. You know, if Nicola can't talk about what's happening and with the charges in court, then can she explain the cancer diagnosis?
Can she explained the unexplainable? Really?
Can she tell people why she's told these stories? And there's just been no contact at all.
So what is the likelihood that she will ever come back to New Zealand and face these charges in christ Church? So the people that know her the best say she'll never come back. Why would she.
There is a warrant out for her arrest, so as soon as she comes back to New Zealand, she will get arrested. But police have said they weren't extradite. Obviously that's a long, lengthy and costly process and it's just not something they're going to look at for this at the stage. So I don't, you know, based on what the people that know who the best have said, I don't think she'll come back, which means, you know, as her friends say, they.
Feel she's gotten away with it.
They would like her to come back and answer the charges and you know, face up to what she's done allegedly. But they just they said there's no reason for her to come back.
So thanks for joining us, Anna, thank you.
That's it for this episode of.
The Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzidherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is hosted and produced by me Chelsea Daniels. Caine Dickie is our studio operator, Richard Martin, our producer and editor, and our executive producer is Jane Ye. Follow the Front Page on the iheartapp or wherever you get your podcasts, and join us next time for another look beyond the headlines.