Sydney grandmother Viviana Leonor Varas web of lies revealed as she’s jailed after swindling $400,000 from her friends

A grandmother will spend a year behind bars after scamming $382,000 from four people, including her best friend, all to fund a gambling problem.

Viviana Leonor Varas, 63, learned her fate at Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court on Thursday after admitting she carried out the elaborate scam from September 2016 to March 2021.

Varas had told her victims that her great-great-grandfather had set up a trust in the US and urged them to invest.

Her web of lies also led her to falsely tell her victims that she had cancer, was a former Wall Street stockbroker and that her mother had died during the Covid pandemic.

Varas’ best friend, whom she met in 2016 while living in the same building in Pyrmont, handed over $145,000 over two years, which she thought would be invested.

When the friend finally asked for her money back, Varas gave her a check for $104,000.

But the check bounced and Varas told her to contact her lawyer, who told her he didn’t do “that kind of work.”

The friend reported Varas to police in 2018, saying she had befriended her and her family and even knitted clothes for her children.

‘She really integrated herself into my life and said you are like a daughter to me. She simply took care of me and at my most vulnerable moment, she told the court, news.com.au reported.

Varas also lied to her friend and told her she was undergoing cancer treatment.

The grandmother met another one of her victims at the Star Casino about ten years ago.

She befriended her and the woman sent her $100,000, all to invest.

‘It really makes you feel stupid. She claims she is a multi-millionaire and when I spoke to her best friend’s family she was as poor as anything. She did this to a lot of people,” the victim told the publication outside court.

Varas defrauded almost $400,000 from four victims, but a court heard she has shown little remorse for her actions

Another victim also met Varas at the same casino and lost a total of $27,000 to the impostor after claiming to be an “investor” while throwing $1,000 bets at the poker table.

Three of her victims had been in court at Varas’ sentencing, but the fourth did not want to come.

He and his wife lost $105,000 of their savings and moved to regional NSW. The victim said his wife suffered from “suicidal thoughts” after the ordeal.

When Varas’ web of lies was finally unraveled, the court heard her long-term partner, children and grandchildren all cut ties with her.

Magistrate Christine Haskett said Varas had shown no remorse for her crimes.

The magistrate told the court that she was not suffering from cancer and that her mother had not died, and that she had “little insight into the harm” she caused her victims.

Varas had also told police that her victims were aware of her gambling habits, but denied that she was addicted.

Her lawyer had tried to claim in 2015 that she had stage one lung cancer, but Magistrate Haskett ignored this as Varas claimed to be undergoing treatment in 2020.

‘Lies about family trusts; lies that she worked on Wall Street. Documents promised but never produced. She told people that she was arranging her mother’s funeral and that she is still alive,” the magistrate said.

Varas was ordered to pay back every dollar she defrauded, but the court heard she had no assets.

She will be eligible for release from prison in May next year.