Page 13 - IAV Digital Magazine #513

ABritishWomanWhoPretendedToHaveCancer; Scammed Friends Into Donating For Her Dream
WeddingWasSentencedTo5monsInJail
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
A British woman is set to spend several months in jail after pretend- ing to be diag- nosed with cancer to collect enough money to throw her dream wed- ding ceremony, fooling not only her close friends but also her now- husband.
Toni Standen, 29,
was sentenced to five months behind bars for faking the illness, according to
the New York Post. She first started her fraud- ulent claims that cancer spread throughout my body three years ago to news pub- lications, accord- ing to the NY Post.
“It’s gone to my brain, my bones — it’s every- where,” Standen claimed, accord- ing to the outlet.
Earlier this year Standen said she only had two months to live, according to the Sun.
The Mirror report-
ed that Standen’s final request was for her father to accompany her down the aisle at her wedding.
To help Standen — who was unemployed — her friends started a GoFundMe in an effort to raise enough money for the occasion to provide “Toni and
Jim The Wedding They Deserve” last year, the
Sun reported.
The fundraiser was able to raise more than $11,000 to fund her wedding plans, which included a honey- moon to Turkey, a day her father wasn’t able to experience because he passed away before the cere- mony, as the Sun reported.
According to the Mirror, people started question- ing Standen’s diagnosis when she started to travel in Europe with her husband, and then she claimed that she contracted COVID-19. When asked by her friends, she admitted to her fabrications.
“We rang her for a three-way con- versation and recorded it. We asked her straight: ‘Have you really got cancer?” a friend of Standen told the Mirror. “She started crying and admitted it was all lies. We ended the call and phoned the police straight away.”
“You made up an illness to gain the sympathy of your friends and sat back and watched as they raised money to support you,” District Judge Nicholas Sanders told Standen at Chester Magistrates’ Court while be sen- tenced for fraud, according to the Sun.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine