Australian woman Lucy Wieland (right) was charged for faking cancer, raking in almost $55,000 in donations. Image: Instagram/@lu_wieland
A woman in Australia was charged for faking cancer, saying she only had less than a year to live.
Lucy Victoria Wieland of North Queensland was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly staging her journey with ovarian cancer through photos and a blog, ABC News reported.
Police said that Wieland told people about her battle with the disease, which led to establishing a GoFundMe page for her. The page raked in A$55,000 (almost P748,200) in donations. The report also cited that Wieland had plans to go to Germany for further treatment.
However, authorities have not determined if her partner, who became her full-time carer, was part of the alleged fraud.
Detective Inspector Chris Lawson said that Wieland was arrested after a month-long investigation. “Some people in the community identified some problems with the story and we conducted investigations to establish the veracity of the claims made by this woman,” he was quoted in the report.
He called the case as “disheartening.” “I mean the real victims here are the people from the community that have heard the stories, have tried to assist as best they can and in some cases what little they have and given the money across in the honest belief they are trying to help people,” he explained.
Wieland was granted bail by Magistrate Steven Mosh of the Townsville Magistrates Court, citing that she had no criminal history and would do minimal harm to the community.
However, she was ordered to surrender her passport. Wieland is set again to face the court in December. Katrina Hallare /ra
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