Inside alleged Christchurch fraudster Nicola Flint’s elaborate, years-long cancer con

Stage four breast cancer, she said. Terminal, she said.

The countdown was on and Flint was sharing her final plans and wishes with her closest friends.

“My God, it was so emotional,” said Emma Butler, who travelled to and from the UK several times to spend as much time as possible with Flint before she succumbed to the cruel disease.

“When you have somebody taking you to the place their ashes are imminently going to be scattered … everyone’s grieving for her.

“It was always just so emotionally charged because every time I left her, I thought I’d never see her again … It was just so hard.”

Butler said her elderly parents were so moved by Flint’s plight that they sent her a large sum of money.

“She’d said basically: ‘I’ve not been able to take my treatment for six weeks and three new tumours have grown in my stomach, I can’t afford to pay the top-up to get unlimited treatment forever’,” Butler recalled.

“I was absolutely devastated. I rang my mum and dad and said ‘oh God, I’ve just had the worst news – it looks like Nicola is coming to the end.

“And my mum and dad sent her £13,000 ($30,000) to pay the top- up. I think it was within two days she’d got that money in her account – my dad had gone in and sorted out an international transfer and stuff into the bank.

“And obviously it was all bulls*** – but at the time we didn’t know it was.”

From mourning to outrage

In June 2024, everything Flint’s family and friends knew about her began to unravel in spectacular fashion when she was charged with stealing more than $100,000 from the city’s oldest rugby club.

Flint failed to appear in the Christchurch District Court on a raft of charges. A warrant for her arrest was issued. Photo / George Heard

Flint had been in charge of the finances and trust account of Christchurch Football Club and was facing nine charges, including causing loss by deception, forgery, using forged documents, theft by a person in a special relationship and taking, and obtaining or using a document for pecuniary advantage, according to court documents.

It is understood most of the funds Flint is accused of pilfering were earmarked for junior rugby teams.

By the time Flint’s court date came through, she had fled to the UK with her husband, Andrew, and their teenage children.

Then, further accusations that Flint had forged medical documents – letters from cancer specialists and surgeons.

Police say she used those letters to deceive ANZ – where she had worked for many years – into paying out more than $84,000 by way of medical retirement.

Butler remembers being in Holland when the news broke.

Flint and her husband and children had stayed with her for the first few months they were back in the UK.

But the women fell out over Flint’s “bizarre” behaviour.

Childhood best friend Emma Butler (left) is one of those who believed Nicola Flint’s death was imminent. Photo / Supplied

“Psychologically, she was difficult to live with. She was very short-tempered, very changeable – she just put everybody on edge,” Butler said.

“It’s really hard to fall out with somebody who’s ‘terminally ill’. But that’s how much she’d pushed me. I couldn’t tolerate it any longer – even though she was dying, she’d pushed me, she’d pushed our friendship and my boundaries so far.

“That took a terrible toll on me, falling out with somebody who was effectively dying.”

While in Holland, one of Flint’s Kiwi friends contacted Butler to let her know the first news stories had been published about the criminal charges.

“When Nicola arrived in the UK, on the journey from the airport she told me that she’d been accused of stealing money, but that she hadn’t stolen the money and it was a vendetta from the chairman of the club,” Butler said.

“She said that he had created a whole narrative around her and he basically ruined her life – so I was kind of familiar with the story because she’d already given me her spin on it.”

Flint called Butler soon after.

“She rang me and she just kept saying over and over again ‘I haven’t been disingenuous’,” she said.

“It was all really odd because by that point, it became quite clear that there were so many lies that had gone on.

“She was angry at one point, she was crying at one point, her voice was so quiet at one point, I could hardly hear her. She was the victim … and I just thought, my God, how have I not noticed that this person can adopt all these different styles to manipulate me? And it was really apparent that that’s what she was doing.

“I couldn’t believe that my best friend of all these years was capable of that … and I still thought maybe she’s got cancer, but it’s not as bad as she said? And then all of the stuff started coming out about the fake letters.

“It wasn’t until the police went on the television and said ‘we can find no record of her having treatment’ … That’s when I believed it.”

Long-time friend Emma Butler (left): “How could you be so cruel to do that to everybody around you?” Photo / Supplied

Butler said Flint’s actions had a “profound effect”.

“I was impacted not just about the lies, but you’ve got to remember carrying that weight that your best friend’s going to die is a real heavy thing to carry,” she said.

“Every time I thought of Nicola, I thought about the fact that she was dying – because that’s what happens when you’ve got somebody so young who’s going to leave her children.

“It was almost my body had to unlearn the response to the name Nicola. It was like hold on, she’s not dying, that wasn’t true.

“How could you be so cruel to do that to everybody around you?”

Police unravel alleged lies, forgery, theft

The case against Flint is outlined in court documents provided to the Herald.

She is facing nine charges for offences she allegedly committed between November 2014 and June 2023.

Some of the charges are representative, meaning police believe Flint committed multiple offences of the same type in similar circumstances.

The charges include:

Faking numerous medical letters from St George’s Cancer Care and Canterbury Breastcare, intending them to be “acted upon as genuine” or to obtain money; Causing a loss of $84,953.87 to ANZ through a medical retirement granted to her on the basis of her “diagnosis”;Stealing money she received on various occasions in her role with the club that was supposed to be paid into club accounts;Dishonestly using a club credit card on multiple occasions

The court documents also include a statement from the detective who investigated Flint.

She said the investigation began after the club alleged Flint had “taken over $85,000 from the club and had since left the country”.

Nicola Flint pictured in the UK soon after she fled New Zealand. It is understood she was attending a party and was captured on video dancing. Photo / Newshub

“The allegations were that Flint had altered Christchurch Football Club invoices by changing the club bank account number. This resulted in funds being paid into a non-club bank account, alleged to belong to Flint.”

In March 2024, the detective contacted Interpol for assistance in finding Flint. The agency provided an address in West Northamptonshire

“I later learned that this was the address of family friend Emma Butler, where the Flint family had been residing for three months following their arrival in the United Kingdom.

“On 8 April 2024, I sent a letter via email to Nicola Flint advising her of the investigation into her employment with Christchurch Football Club and wanting to speak with her.”

Meanwhile, the detective continued to investigate Flint’s actions and transactions.

“I can confirm that invoices that were due to the Christchurch Football Club were paid into the account [owned by Flint)],” she said.

“Further misappropriation of funds was also identified … in regard to a junior club chocolate fundraiser and unauthorised spending on a Christchurch Football Club bank card.”

After “significant media attention” over the allegations against Flint, police began investigating claims she had forged medical documents, including letters purporting to be from surgeon Phillipa Mercer.

“These letters have also been used to medically retire from her previous employer, ANZ bank,” the detective said.

“Police have obtained a signed statement from Dr Mercer in relation to these forged letters. She confirmed to police that she did not write these and they do not reflect her medical opinion.”

In late April 2024, a court order was granted allowing police to access all the documentation relating to Flint’s medical retirement from ANZ.

Flint had worked at ANZ for years, but was granted a medical retirement on the back of forged cancer letters. Photo / NZME

The documentation included another medical letter, from Dr David Gibbs.

“Police have obtained a statement from Dr Gibbs confirming that the letter has been forged,” said the detective.

During the investigation, lawyer Linda Drummond contacted police to say she had been instructed by Flint and the alleged offender would not be making a statement.

Flint and her family also left Butler’s home.

“Now the whereabouts of the family is unknown. I received a further call from Butler on 6 May 2024. She advised that there had been no further information in relation to enrolments for the Flint children, meaning that they had been reported as missing in education. This is considered very serious in the United Kingdom.

“Flint’s mother is believed to live in Wales and they may have moved to this location, but no further details are known.”

After leaving New Zealand, Flint and her husband sold their Christchurch home. After the rugby club took legal action, the couple were forced to hand over almost $100,000 from the proceeds.

The club’s legal and accountancy fees were also paid.

The Herald requested an interview with police about the case. That was declined, but a statement was provided.

“In cases where a person has left the country, police seek advice from Interpol on our possible next steps, including extradition,” it reads.

“Extradition processes are on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration the country and nature of offending.

“After considering a number of factors, extradition won’t be taking place in this matter. Police are unable to provide further comment at this stage.”

Web of ‘lies’ a real slap in the face

Neither Nicola – who may be using her maiden name Curry – nor her husband responded to the Herald.

But former friends and some of Andrew Flint’s family were prepared to speak about the situation.

Laura lived on the same street as Flint and bonded with her after the 2011 earthquake.

Nicola Flint convinced many people she had terminal cancer. She has been charged with forging medical documents and police say there is no evidence she was diagnosed with the disease. Photo / Supplied

“That day was pretty horrendous for everybody … after that we spent a lot of time with her, welcomed her into our neighbourhood group and started getting to know her,” she said.

“We were pretty close … There wasn’t a day we weren’t in touch, either by text, by phone or face to face.

“She was fun, she had a great sense of humour, she just seemed to fit in with everyone. There was nothing odd at all at the beginning.”

Laura will never forget the moment she first heard about Flint’s “cancer”.

“I was in shock … it was very upsetting, especially because she told us all that it was inoperable and it was stage four, and it was terminal and that there was no chance of her surviving it,” she said.

“It was hard to process … awful. And then, as best friends, naturally, you rally, don’t you? I was like, what can we do? How can we help? How can we support you?”

“She told some pretty big whoppers … now in hindsight, we can see that in our friend group, she would section us off and keep us apart … it was always a ‘one-at-a-time’ sort of thing.

“She definitely started keeping people at arm’s length and creating these little factions, these little sections of people, so that we couldn’t all be together. Because if we were, we might share stories and realise that actually, ‘that’s not how I remember her telling us that’ or ‘that’s not what she showed me’.

“And she used to tell us awful things about Andrew that really made us dislike him – a lot. That’s really sad … she just crushed so many people like that. She was quite clever and manipulative in that way. We can see that now.”

Laura said the journey with Flint was “heartbreaking”.

“You always hear about people’s cancer stories and you never think it’s really gonna happen to someone you know and love,” she said.

“And when it does, it’s actually quite hard to get your head around. And it was just sad – we cried a lot. I was really grieving for my friend and I tried to just be a comfort and a companion.”

Laura said it never occurred to her that Flint was lying.

“Some time later we sort of thought, ‘gosh, you know, for someone with stage four terminal cancer, she’s certainly looking very well’, “ she said.

A family member says Nicola Flint’s alleged offending was “disgusting”. Photo / Newshub

“But I didn’t question her because I’ve got this optimistic view of people that they’re good, honest folk; that there’s good in everybody and that no one in their right mind would lie about something as serious as that.

“And to also put their children through that and their husband through that and their family through that – I never entertained the idea that she’d lie because that’s just so hurtful and so sick.”

Laura was sickened when the allegations against Flint went public.

“I was just gobsmacked … it was just mind-blowing that she would have the gall to do that, to actually forge documents,” she said.

“And then you started thinking, well, clearly she’s not well because to do that something’s got to be missing in your life that you need all the attention that comes from dying from cancer.

“It felt really weird. I was really angry when I found out because she just lied to so many people – she’d cheated and stolen and deceived, and what kind of person does that?”

“I want her back here to answer for what she’s done – and not just the criminal charges. She has actually hurt a lot of people. It’s just so sad that she could actually treat people like that. It makes me cross.”

While some of Flint’s behaviour was odd at times, Laura said there were no red flags.

“She was an enigmatic person. She had one of those great personalities that sort of attracted people to her, so she had a big group of friends – really good people who were kind, wonderful and nice.

“All of those people are now reeling and going ‘oh my God, how could she do that to us and to our children’. I mean you trust your friends and this was a real kick in the guts, a real slap in the face.”

‘For a while she was normal’

Flint and her husband are estranged from his family.

They met in Bermuda and moved to New Zealand when Flint was pregnant with their first child.

“For a while their life – on the surface – seemed pretty normal,” said Andrew Flint’s sister, Debbie Jansen.

“But there were these stories that, when you look back, just didn’t add up. Like, when I first met her she said that she grew up in a house like Downton Abbey and had servants. Then her mother apparently ran over a person at a crossing and she had to pay all her money to get her mother out of a court case … it was that, and then apparently she said that she’d [her mother had] killed the father because he was sick and then that had gone to court as well, so she had to pay money for that.”

Flint had been in charge of the finances and trust account of Christchurch Football Club. Photo / Supplied

Jansen said Flint began borrowing money from an older member of the family. No one questioned her at first – no one suspected she would lie about such serious situations.

“There were a lot of elements of normal, which kind of made all the other stuff … you didn’t worry about it or you just moved on,” she said.

The relationship between Jansen and her brother and sister-in-law broke down in 2013.

She said Flint told her “lie upon lie” about a car Jansen had lent her – claiming it “wasn’t worth warranting” and she “might as well just sell it for scrap”.

“My husband’s brother went and picked up the car and it was absolutely fine. I don’t know why she lied about that; there was no reason to at all,” she said.

“I said to my brother, ‘I think we’ll just keep that car,’ and he was a little bit upset about that. And then it just got worse.

“I think I sort of started to realise that all the things that had happened in the past, all the stuff that she’d told us, just wasn’t right.”

Jansen heard about Flint’s terminal diagnosis from other family members. It was not the first time she’d claimed to have cancer.

“The first cancer was when we were still all talking … I remember she had cervical cancer,” she said.

“She was saying how it was really bad.

“When it hit the headlines, I emailed my brother … and he was just like ‘she’s really sick’ and ’she’s getting better care here’. He was certainly supporting her in the fact that she was still sick.

“It’s actually crazy how well she can suck people in … and one of the reasons that I agreed to speak is because I don’t think she’ll stop and I think that’s a way of life for her.

“The lies will never stop and she’s likely to hurt someone else or steal someone else’s money – that’s what I think. She’s very good at it … I feel like something’s not right in the head that you think that you can carry on like that without feeling any remorse or shame or anything.”

Jansen worried about her brother, niece and nephew. She said she would always love and support them and would be there for them whenever they needed her.

“It’s a real concern. My greatest fear is that Andrew is over [in the UK] without his family and he’s very isolated … and I just think he’s he’s just too proud to come back because he feels bad, but actually, our door would always be open for him and the kids. Always,” she said.

“My message to Nicola? She’s got to stop and she needs to face the charges. She probably won’t, but I think she needs to be honest … she needs to find some compassion somewhere. I don’t think that will ever happen, though.

“I think this story is really important as hopefully, it will help in the future for the kids or help people not to be duped by Nicola.”

Flint’s actions ‘disgusting … so wrong’

Another Flint family member spoke on condition of anonymity. She said Flint’s alleged offending was “disgusting” and “so wrong”.

“I’m a nurse and I’ve nursed a lot of cancer patients, and to think these poor people are living with cancer and dying from cancer, and she can do this? She’s just degrading the whole health system where cancer is concerned. It’s just wrong and I am very, very angry,” she said.

She believed Flint had “pulled the wool over” her husband’s eyes and he was now stuck in a situation he felt he could not get out of.

“She is very cunning. She must have a bloody good brain for organising things and making sure she never fell off her perch with the lies she told. It’s like a big web.

“Andrew will never leave those children. And I am sure that is why he’s with her – even though he knows what’s going on now. He just absolutely loves kids and he will never leave his own kids – he will put up with hell or high water to be with those kids.”

The relative said Flint’s son was still in contact with a friend in New Zealand and had messaged an update recently.

“He said ‘Mummy hasn’t got cancer anymore – the doctors in the UK have fixed her, whereas the ones in New Zealand couldn’t,” she said.

“That’s obviously what she’s told him … but it’s just totally wrong. It is just disgusting … she’s hurt so many people.”

The woman first heard about the charges when a friend texted her to say Flint was going to be on the television news that night.

“I could have dropped dead on the floor, it was such a shock. It was just unreal, just unbelievable,” she said.

“She’s got a really warped mind … you’d have to, to even try some of the things she’s done,” she said.

“I can’t understand why she’d do it to us. She really is a manipulator, a real crook. And what annoys me the most is that she’s not going to be held responsible for it.

“I don’t know how she can live with herself.”

One of the letters Flint was accused of faking. She has been charged with forging this letter from a leading cancer surgeon. Photo / SuppliedOne of the letters Flint allegedly faked from a leading Christchurch cancer surgeon. Photo / Supplied

She wanted to be clear that while she wanted no more to do with Flint, her husband and children were still deeply loved by their family in New Zealand.

“We would dearly love them to come home and just be amongst his loved ones. The door is always open for him and the children. And to the kids – I mean, no one really knows what they’ve been told about us, but they’ve got family here that love them very much.”

The relative also wanted to make sure that wherever Flint was now, people were aware of her alleged offending.

“Be very wary of her – very wary. Question everything she says … she absolutely won’t stop. Why would she stop now? It’s become her life. And the way the police talked to us, they said that people like that don’t stop, they just keep going until they’re caught,” she said.

“It has been diabolical … her tentacles have reached into a lot of places.”

Seven years of lies: Flint’s elaborate efforts

Flint’s closest friend also spoke to the Herald. They spent Christmases together and considered themselves “second mum” to each other’s children.

“We became as thick as thieves, it was a pretty close friendship,” said Jane (not her real name).

“We hung out a lot and we had a lot of fun. Nicola Flint is a lot of fun – she’s hilarious and witty. She’s kind and if you’re going through something, she will be there for you. There’s part of me that misses that friendship … I’ve cried and cried … It was one of those rare friendships where it’s not just the mums, it’s genuinely the whole family.”

Jane recalled the beginning of Flint’s cancer story.

“I remember that day because it was the day [former Prime Minister] John Key resigned. I’m a real news nerd and I remember being at school pick-up, walking up to her and saying ‘Oh my gosh, did you hear the Prime Minister has resigned’,” she said.

“And she just said to me, I found a lump in my breast. She was really worried. I was mortified … I’ve been dealt a pretty rough hand from cancer. My mum died when I was 2 and my mum’s brother and sister died when they were aged 4 and 16. My grandmother died at 45 from breast cancer. So when I grew up, basically everyone but me and my granddad had died from cancer.

“Cancer is something I’m acutely aware of – the hurt and the hole that cancer leaves behind. So, when somebody has cancer, I’m there.”

Nicola Flint. Photo / Supplied

Jane believes Flint did have a lump and had it checked. But after that, her story was all fantasy.

“I suspect the lying started when she got those results back. I suspect we enjoyed the attention that she got, and when she probably got the result back, the result was negative, but we were all told it was stage four and she was terminally ill,” she said.

“I genuinely thought that she had cancer and she would go into great detail about some of the symptoms that she was experiencing, and they were horrific – and the treatments she was having.

“This went on for about seven years. We went away to Māpua with her and Andrew and the kids for Christmas Day three years in a row because it was going to be her ‘last’ Christmas.”

Jane said people in her wider circle questioned Flint’s diagnosis, but she stood firm with her friend.

“After a few years, I had other friends who are in the medical field say to me ‘Jane, this doesn’t ring true’ and I would say ‘no, no you don’t understand Mā she is just amazing and she copes really well, she’s just really strong’.”

“I mean, she taught her daughter to braid her hair because she wasn’t going to be around. Her kids had been told that she was dying. Who would put their kids through it?” she said.

“But at the end of the day, you know, we’ve had a police officer go on national television and say there is no evidence that she has cancer.”

Close friend Jane was devastated to find out Flint had been lying to her for years. Photo / File

After Flint left the country, Jane and another friend began comparing notes.

“One day we were having a glass of wine at her house and I said, ‘have you ever doubted the cancer thing? Has anybody ever said to you, ‘That’s not true?’ And she said ‘yes’.

“It was still pretty unfathomable at that point that she would have lied to us both – but, more importantly, that she would have lied to the kids and Andrew.”

Jane remembered that Flint had emailed her medical letters from cancer specialists. She pulled them up and the women were horrified to realise that on close inspection, they did not look right.

“We scrolled down on two letters supposedly from the same surgeon and two different signatures. We just looked at each other and we started panicking and saying ‘surely not’.”

Police eventually investigated the letters, resulting in some of the charges Flint is now facing.

“I was just mortified,” Jane said.

“She has lied about her health so much … and at one point she told us that Andrew might have terminal cancer. I remember leaving work that day and having a conversation with my family that night about ‘if Andrew’s dying too, we’ll take the kids’. And I’ve talked to two other people whose families also had that awful conversation that night.”

Jane has not had any contact with Flint since she was charged in 2024.

Shortly before that, the alleged offender had said she had undergone a treatment in the UK called CyberKnife – a non-invasive, robotic form of radiation that blasts high doses of radiation to tumours.

“She’d always said in New Zealand that her life was going to be short because you couldn’t have CyberKnife here,” she said.

“Six days of CyberKnife she allegedly had and then eventually, few weeks later, on the 5th of March 2024, she said to me: ‘so going from stage four cancer in New Zealand to I have six days of CyberKnife and those tumours are obliterated’.

“And then she told me that she had cancer and tumours in her bowel and that she was going to have her bowel removed.”

Jane has reached out to Andrew Flint and let him know her family loves and supports him and his children.

“My message to them is come home – or at least, it’s cool if you don’t want to come home, but please don’t cut yourselves off from everyone here who loves you,” she said.

Nicola Flint is believed to be in Wales. Photo / Supplied

“My advice to Nicola would be to just go and talk to someone because this is not normal behaviour. I don’t think that someone who has lied to an entire community and their family about having cancer is just going to come right. I think that’s a condition that probably needs some treatment.”

“And it must be pretty hard and pretty exhausting. And at the end of the day, if what you said was right and you are innocent – prove it.

“I know a lot of people have a real desire for her to pay for what she’s done. I don’t necessarily feel that way. I just want the kids and Andrew to have some truth. That would be great. But I don’t think that will happen and I suspect that the lies have continued.”

Nicola Flint’s case will be covered in depth in a two-part podcast special. A Moment In Crime – Diagnosis? Deception will be available in January 2026.

A Moment in Crime is a NZ Herald crime podcast, with new episodes out every month.

Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz