'Walter Mitty' conwoman tricked family and friends into handing over £300,000 by telling them she would make millions on the stock market Sonia Hergest, 38, from Margate, said she had turned £10,000 into £1m The conwoman's victims were members of her own family and their friends Rather than investing the money, she bought herself holidays and homes Hergest, who suffers from cerebral palsy, also withdrew £40,000 in cash When investors asked where their money was, she said she had cancer Sonia Hergest, 38, has been jailed for two years after admitting conning her friends out of £300,000 A woman who conned friends out of £300,000 after convincing them she had the Midas touch on the stock market has been jailed. Sonia Hergest, 38, told her victims she had a surefire get-rich scheme and had turned a £10,000 stake into £1m in months. But the conwoman, from Margate in Kent, was in fact a Walter Mitty character who spent their money on a 19-month binge of luxury holidays, fast cars and horses. Canterbury Crown Court heard how Hergest spent more than £90,000 on trips to St Lucia, Turkey, Cuba and the USA, and also took out more than £40,000 in cash. She impressed her friends and family with her lavish lifestyle, building up a portfolio of eight expensively decorated homes and dressing in designer clothes. When investors grew suspicious at the lack of returns on their money, she pretended to have leukaemia to buy time and sympathy. Eventually, however, she had to confess, and admitted in court 15 counts of fraud over a 19-month period. Sentencing her to two years in prison, Judge Simon James said she was a 'Walter Mitty character' who had cynically abused the trust of her friends and family. He told her: 'You made yourself out as some sort of financial genius, persuading friends and family to invest by promising significant and immediate returns. You boasted that you were a millionaire-maker, claiming you had turned an initial investment of £10,000 into £1m within a few months. The reality, of course, was very different. In fact you were exaggerating the profits you were making to secure even more investors. You cynically serviced a lavish lifestyle of expensive holidays, well-furnished homes, horses and other luxuries. You took a significant amount of this money knowing that there was no prospect of any return for your investors. Hergest was jailed for two years at Canterbury Crown Court where the judge compared her to Walter Mitty He added: 'You took the money with no other intention other than spending on yourself. You cynically abused the trust of close friends and people who considered you as family. Far from being a victim of the economic downturn you are a thoroughly manipulative, dishonest and selfish individual. 'You clearly had no compunction of using other people's hard-earned money to finance your own millionaire lifestyle. These offences were motivated out of greed. Your lies were such that at once you even descended the depths of falsely claiming that you had cancer to buy yourself more time. The court heard that Hergest, who suffers from cerebral palsy and had to be helped into the dock, conned more than 15 investors, including a man who treated her as an adopted daughter, members of her own family, and their close friends. When police raided her rented home they found she had fled, leaving behind expensive furniture and shoes, bottles of expensive perfume and unwrapped presents.