A 31-year-old woman in the UK, Charlotte Blackwell, has been convicted of defrauding family and friends out of over £12,000 (approximately MYR 68,000) by faking an overseas wedding. She used the money to pay off online gambling debts. Last year, Charlotte was also sentenced for falsely claiming her daughter had terminal cancer, scamming £4,000 (around MYR 22,700) from the children’s cancer charity Morgan’s Army.
According to Mirror UK, the court revealed that Charlotte fabricated plane tickets, hotel bookings, and travel agency documents to convince her prospective mother-in-law and three friends to send a total of £12,000. One victim became suspicious after verifying a booking with the travel agency and discovered the reference number belonged to someone else’s previous trip, prompting a police investigation. Charlotte admitted to the authorities that the scheme was solely to settle her gambling debts and claimed she had since deleted her gambling accounts.
Judge Jonathan Rees KC condemned Charlotte’s actions as a series of “lies and nonsense” and described the fraud as disgraceful. He ordered Charlotte to compensate the four victims of the fake wedding scam a total of £13,000 (approximately MYR 73,500) for the emotional and psychological harm caused.
In addition, regarding her previous fraud against the children’s cancer charity, Charlotte had received a suspended sentence and 120 hours of community service. Cardiff Crown Court found her attendance record poor, with only half of her service completed and three unexcused absences. The judge imposed an additional £50 fine and ordered her to pay £150 in legal costs, warning her to comply with the court’s orders.
