A woman has disowned her daughter after discovering she impersonated her and took out a NZ$19,000 loan (£10,000) in her name to buy luxury holidays.
Muriel Hughes, 74, was shocked to discover the fraud when she applied for a loan and it was refused.
Her daughter, Michelle, had already received a loan, spending it all on overseas trips for herself and her friends.
"Michelle and I had always been so close and I thought she had a heart of gold. For her to betray me like this is heart-breaking. I won't ever get over it," Muriel told The Mirror.
Muriel had even joked with Michelle about her spending, asking if she'd won the lottery.
"Little did I know it was my money funding the whole thing. I was making the repayments and scrimping and saving whilst she lived a life of luxury."
Michelle is Muriel's oldest child, living just around the corner from her mother. Muriel even raised the child Michelle had at age 14 as her own son.
Michelle gained control of her mother's money by becoming her power of attorney when Muriel was diagnosed with an obstructive lung disease and Parkinson's disease.
As Muriel's mobility waned, she decided to apply for a loan for a home extension so she could have a bedroom and bathroom built downstairs.
When the application was denied, she thought a mistake had been made. But when she found loans taken out in her name, forged signatures and all, she felt sick.
"I had to go to the police station and listen to a tape of my own daughter impersonating me on the phone. I was sickened," Muriel told The Mirror.
"My husband, Arthur, died six years ago and Michelle made him a promise, on his deathbed, that she would look after me."
Muriel has since disowned her daughter.
"She's not my daughter any more. I want people to know what she's done to our family.
"It's made me really ill. I feel like she's walked away from this with a slap on the wrist. I have repaid 70 percent of the loan. I am not well off and the repayments have left me struggling to survive."
Michelle has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Newshub.
