Dance mums catfight over buying daughter ‘Insta’ likes, spend-spree
Two Gold Coast dance mums are at war, one claiming the other siphoned cash from a kids’ competition for extravagant expenses, including buying Instagram likes for her daughter.
Crime & Justice
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A GOLD Coast mother has been accused of secretly siphoning cash from a kids’ dance competition business to buy Instagram likes for her dancer daughter, and also to order pizza, wine, flowers, dance outfits and Uber rides.
Jennifer Lea Fisher, 44, of Hope Island, has claim in a court application that Lauren Phoebe Costar, 29, from Pacific Pines, used an account set up for their jointly owned and run dance business, Future Stars Dance Competition, to secretly fund her lifestyle.
Ms Fisher has accused Ms Costar of using the businesses PayPal account as a personal expense account without her knowledge.
Ms Costar strongly denies the claims, and told Ms Fisher in an online confrontation in May, “I haven’t stolen, lied or taken you for a ride,” court documents state.
Fisher told Brisbane Supreme Court in a sworn statement she noticed the missing money after taking a close look at the PayPal account in May, after she became suspicious about Ms Costar, when she discovered payments that appeared to be unrelated to the dance competition.
One of the payments which caught her eye was an invoice Ms Fisher alleges was a payment for Instagram followers that Ms Costar “assumedly” had purchased for her daughter Laila, an aspiring professional dancer.
Ms Fisher accused Ms Costar of ripping her off and taking her for a ride, in an ugly war of words on Facebook Messenger, three months before taking her to court, court documents state.
“In the accounts Paypal there was (SIC) followings bought for Laila for her Insta account,” Ms Fisher told Ms Costar on Facebook Messenger on May 26.
Ms Costar did not respond to Ms Fisher’s Insta claim, during that discussion.
Ms Fisher queried a $417 payment Ms Costar allegedly made in April 2018 for a dance costume, $217 to Nicks wine merchants and a further $229 for four dance outfits as well as other payments, including a fishing competition entry fee.
Ms Costar told Ms Fisher that she had earlier mentioned to her that she had used some Future Stars money for personal expenditure and this was not a secret.
“The money I owe future stars we have discussed and I have always said I’ll pay back. I’ve never hidden what I have used (it) for,” Ms Costar says in a Facebook Messenger chat filed in court.
“Would you prefer we make an appointment with a lawyer to go over? I’m not really comfortable with being accused to (SIC) stealing from you and taking you for a ride and lying to you … when it’s not the case,” Ms Costar told Ms Fisher.
Ms Costar claims that the PayPal account Ms Fisher alleges has been misused is now controlled by Ms Costar’s mother, who now runs the competition after the pair agreed to end their partnership.
Ms Fisher claims that she only discussed the possibility of transferring the business to Ms Costar’s mother and winding-up their jointly held company because she believed it was loss-making.
She alleges the business may have been profitable.
Ms Fisher, who was last year treated for breast cancer, initially applied to court last month in a bid to force Ms Costar to hand over the accounts for the dance business, and passwords for PayPal accounts and social media.
But on August 20, Justice David Boddice gave Ms Fisher the green light to file a statement of claim against Ms Costar.
“I am very concerned that (Ms Costar) has used the proceeds and profits of the business for her own purposes and has set up a competing business to the detriment of” the shared business, Ms Fisher told the court in her affidavit.
The dance competition is aimed at children aged 14 and under, and has held events on the Gold Coast, Fraser Coast, Caboolture, Murwillumbah, NSW and Coffs Harbour, NSW.
The pair set the competition up in 2017 after they met at the Dynamite Dance Studio in Coomera where their daughters took lessons.
Ms Fisher’s lawyer declined to comment because the case was ongoing. Ms Costar and her lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
No future date for hearing has been set.
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