Alleged Christchurch fraudster Nicola Flint continued to tell her New Zealand friends about her terminal cancer and rigorous treatment as recently as two months ago, after she left for the UK.
They believe she is continuing to lie to her Kiwi husband, children and UK-based family.
Newshub has spoken to many people who considered themselves close friends of Flint and who supported her through her supposed terminal cancer. New Zealand Police investigating Flint have found zero evidence of her having cancer at all.
Flint faces nine fraud related charges and was due to make her first appearance in the Christchurch District Court last week. But Flint left the country in a hurry in December and is believed to be living in Wales with her husband and children.
The court has now issued a warrant for her arrest.
Flint's alleged to have stolen about $100,000 from Christchurch Football Club and nearly $85,000 from her former employer, ANZ bank. She is also charged with forging medical documents by two respected Christchurch surgeons to back up her own claims of having terminal cancer.
Several of Flint's former friends have spoken to Newshub on the condition of anonymity.
"The lying was abhorrent. She would give us graphic details of her side effects, wear band-aids after 'treatment', sob uncontrollably about dying and there were always scans and blood tests.
"She was very convincing but if you pushed her, she would not answer any questions - in fact, she'd just shut down the conversation," one said.
Another close friend told Newshub: "If I did start asking in-depth questions about her health, she'd shut me down and not talk to me. She would say, 'I think about dying from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, I don't want to talk about it now.'"
Yet another friend said: "One of the worst things is that two of her closest friends lost people very close to them to cancer. One lost her husband and is raising two children on her own, the other lost a mother when she was two.
"I think those two friends were right beside her until very recently. How she lied to them, I can't comprehend."
- Do you know more? Email juliet.speedy@wbd.com
A close neighbourhood friend said: "Nic has totally broken my heart and I will never forgive what she's done. The lies are just so hurtful and I can't believe she's continuing the same behaviour in the UK.
"Those around her need to wake up. A New Zealand police officer has said on nationwide television that she does not have cancer - she is lying."
This year, she messaged a friend saying her cancer "was everywhere" and detailed numerous surgeries and procedures she was undergoing in the UK.
One of Flint's messages reads: "I think the sooner the cancer finishes off the job the better... for everyone."
Flint claimed she was having "cyberknife" treatment in early February in the UK and she had a large tumour removed from her bowel in March. A message she sent shortly after read: "Need another operation within next 2 weeks as pretty nasty growth in my upper colon, but they removed large tumour from my bowel... have sent 13 biopsies off... they are cancerous, just need to see what type so can look at potential treatment."
At the time Flint said all of this treatment was happening, Newshub received video of Flint dancing the macarena at a party in the UK.
Friends said Flint's two primary school aged children also believe she has terminal cancer.
"That breaks my heart," one said. "Those kids have spent most of their lives with the anxiety of their mother being terminally ill.
"UK authorities need to be investigating this."
Flint medically retired from ANZ bank in 2017 using fake medical letters outlining a terminal diagnosis. One former colleague at ANZ told Newshub Flint would break down in tears and wonder who would look after her children after she died.
Other friends sid they offered to have the children - especially when Flint told them a few years ago that her husband was terminally ill, as well.
One friend said Flint told her five years ago, in 2019, she was dying.
"She explained she had a tumour on her spine, that she'd had breast cancer which had metastasised into her spine and lymph nodes and that her prognosis was 6-9 months."
Flint detailed to this friend her countless surgeries and a rigorous treatment regime including radiation. This was five years ago.
"We all wish her husband would wake up and bring the kids home," she said. "However, she has told him that people in Christchurch are after them and the kids' privacy has been breached. He's been lied to their entire marriage and the poor man's head will be so filled with her bullshit he won't know what to think.
"She will have lied and warned her family not to speak to him, so they won't be. He is all alone."
This friend said Flint's pattern is that anyone who questions her is shut out of their lives.
"She has now managed to cut her husband and kids off from everyone.
"The kids are not even allowed to message their friends here anymore - it is awful."
She had a message for her former friend, Nicola Flint: "If you truly love your family, it's time to stop the lies. Come clean, come home, face up to what you've done and give your husband and kids a chance to try and rebuild their lives."
Police have told Newshub they don't plan to extradite Flint at this stage but, if she entered New Zealand again, she would be arrested at the border.
After Newshub broke the story of the fraud allegations earlier this year, Flint emailed a friend, claiming people at the rugby club she allegedly stole from wanted her dead from her cancer, adding: "The reality is, much as I may want to be in NZ, I am personally not safe anymore and have a large group of people who believe I deserve to be harmed and hurt quite badly. I have lost people I thought were friends and have to live with the shame of people believing things that will forever question any integrity I have.
"In order to clear my name, it will take huge legal bills and time, which I don't have and no guarantee that I will be successful."
She also reiterated her cancer was widespread and imminently terminal.
Newshub has reached out to Flint numerous times, seeking comment and asking for her side of the story or proof of cancer. She has never responded.
