A British woman is headed to prison after she faked having terminal cancer to raise money for her wedding.
Toni Standen, 29, was sentenced to five months for scamming do-gooders out of $11,000 for her dream wedding.
“Every right-thinking member of society would be appalled by your behavior,” the judge told her during sentencing on Tuesday.
“Thankfully it’s not often this court has to sentence someone who has shown such a degree of shamelessness, such greed, or such a betrayal of friendship as you did to your friends and the wider community,” the judge continued.
In July 2017, Standen claimed to have just two months to live. She claimed her condition was terminal, saying cancer had spread to her bones, brain, and “everywhere.”
Her friends said they had no reason to doubt her because of the great lengths she went to pull off her scam.
By shaving her head and describing her condition in such great detail, she was able to convince local newspapers to write about her pretend plight.
According to The Sun, she even had her husband-to-be James convinced. The 52-year-old married her after her friends raised $11,000 on a GoFundMe page they created to give them “a wedding they deserve.”
Friends eventually became suspicious after she claimed to have defeated her terminal cancer and traveled around Europe. After Standen claimed to have had COVID-19, her friends confronted her on a three-way call.
She finally admited to the them on the call, saying it was “all lies”.
“I am embarrassed and heartbroken and right now I am struggling,” she texted the friends.
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