A TERMINALLY-ILL cancer sufferer from Salisbury was forced to return to work after being conned out of her life savings by a fraudster.

Sandra Burch, 51, was fleeced of £92,000 by fantasist Michael Cremin, 41, after being tricked into investing in a property deal.

After being given her diagnosis she retired from work and was relying on her pension but after Cremin struck she has returned to work part-time as a bookkeeper.

Ms Burch explained: "A friend needed some financial help. He was going to be evicted from his property and land but he had been there a long time.

"We said we would help him but only if we stood a chance of buying the property. The money was my pension pot and little bit of money my partner had saved.

"At the time I'd been given 18 months, which are the statistics for secondary breast cancer. In April 2015 I left work so my salary went down to nothing - just a pension, which was enough to buy food and what have you.

"I was hoping the investment would give me an income and when I faced chemo I could stay home. That was our goal really, to stay at home and have that reassurance that we had that investment and if I needed to cash it in we could do for treatment overseas. Now I don't have that option.

"I've now gone back to work three days a week, just to have money. I enjoy working but this person took all my options away from me."

Ms Burch said that because of the stress Cremin had put her through she was worried that every time she had a CT scan she would be told her cancer had spread.

"When you are diagnosed with secondary breast cancer your anxiety levels are at a peak. All you worry about is the future and how you will leave your loved ones," she said.

"It was an awful time for me to go through this and secondly to admit to my partner that the only funds we had were lost. It was horrendous, absolutely horrendous.

"I've always believed in trusting people. This person came across as a professional. He made me feel he was there helping me. I think he was hoping my prognosis was shorter so he would benefit even more from my funds. It was devastating.

"There isn't a day that goes by I don't think about it. I stood in court with 12 people looking at me, thinking they must think I'm a complete idiot. I always thought my family and friends would think I'm a complete idiot.

"But I did my best and looking back now, I researched him, he came across as a professional, he had qualifications after name.

"I don't even know if I could back go back in time would I have done anything differently... I really don't know. I did what any logical person would have done.

"The problem is he made a fool of me and took advantage of someone who really shouldn't have been taken advantage of."