Aust con artist expected back in Sydney

Authorities in Ireland and Canada spent more than $500,000 investigating false sex abuse claims by Australia's Samantha Azzopardi.

Samantha Azzorpardi

Troublemaker Samantha Azzopardi is expected to arrive in Sydney after being deported from Canada. (AAP)

Serial troublemaker Samantha Azzopardi is expected to arrive in Sydney on Thursday after duping Irish and Canadian authorities with horrific tales of being a child sexual abuse victim.

The 26-year-old from Sydney, who has used more than 40 aliases, was considered a flight risk and so devious Canadian authorities decided to keep her locked up until she boarded a flight back to Australia on Tuesday.

A Canadian Border Security Agency officer is escorting Azzopardi on the flight.

When Azzopardi was found wandering the streets of Dublin, Ireland, last year she led authorities to believe she was a teenage sex-trafficking victim from eastern Europe.

Azzopardi drew pictures apparently showing herself being raped, forcing Irish police to release the photo of her in a bid to find her identity.

Irish authorities spent $375,000 on the investigation before discovering she was an Australian con artist and not a child.

Just six months after Azzopardi was deported from Ireland she managed to obtain an Australian passport and return to Ireland where she worked as an au pair.

On September 16 this year, Azzopardi, using the alias Aurora Hepburn, walked into a Calgary clinic claiming she was 14 and had been a victim of an abduction, sexual assault and torture.

Canadian authorities spent $157,000 on their investigation before realising Azzopardi was the woman the Irish media dubbed a "Walter Mitty-like con artist", referring to the daydreamer character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty created by author James Thurber.

Azzopardi was charged with public mischief in Calgary and faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison, but after pleading guilty was sentenced to the two months she had already served in custody.


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