My $136 parking fine is more than Belle Gibson ever paid for her crimes

As a Netflix series looms about cancer faker and fraudster Belle Gibson who scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars from desperate victims, the fact she hasn’t paid for her crimes — in either fines or jail time — should infuriate us all.

I called Belle Gibson this week. You remember Belle, the heartless hoaxer who faked having terminal brain cancer to scam hundreds of thousands of dollars out of her fans by selling them wellness advice and recipes.

If you don’t remember her, you soon will because her story is about to be retold in a Netflix drama. People all over the globe will soon know what a twisted and manipulative woman she is.

Apple Cider Vinegar looks electrifying, with Kaitlyn Dever playing Belle in a performance which, from the trailer, seems chillingly accurate.

As Dever’s character speaks convincingly of being an empath, the viewer is catapulted straight back to the 60 Minutes interview where Gibson, in a pink jumper, desperately tried to defend herself as her shocking lies and deception were laid bare.

I rang Belle this week because I am furious.

Belle Gibson in her days as a fraudster cancer faker and wellness guru.

Furious that a decade after journalists rumbled her as a fraudster, her twisted attempts to build fame and a social media following through wicked and nefarious means are seemingly still being copied by others. And why wouldn’t they?

Having seen Belle build a wellness empire, including an app and cookbook, by convincing fans she had cured herself of cancer with good nutrition and alternative therapies, it’s no surprise other charlatans have flooded the ungoverned online space with their wacky theories and dangerous behaviour?

To date Belle has not suffered a single consequence for her callous behaviour.

She has not faced criminal charges, she has not paid the $410,000 fine ordered by the Federal Court after being found guilty of five separate contraventions of Australian consumer law and she has not been declared bankrupt.

Belle Gibson at home in Northcote. Picture: Ian Currie

How can the public, including innocent children, be protected if the law doesn’t adequately punish those who lie and deceive to seek fame and fortune through the increasingly powerful organ that is social media?

Even Belle’s brother Nick told me last year that he thought Belle should be in jail.

His little sister, he confided, was such a master manipulator – along with cancer, she claimed to have had a stroke, two cardiac arrests and heart surgeries where she apparently died twice on the operating table – that was a fitting punishment.

“The things she’s done to those families, well, technically it’s fraud,” Nick, from Brisbane, told me.

“I think she should be locked up, spend some time in prison and have a bit of a think about it because I don’t think she realises what she’s done to them.”

But I do because I’ve spoken to them.

I’ve chatted at length with Melbourne mum-of-three Kylie Willey who was so smashed by the gruelling daily chemotherapy she underwent after being diagnosed with a Grade 3b T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma that when Belle Gibson’s luminous face popped up on her Instagram she was entranced.

Belle Gibson looking contrite … but she hasn’t paid a cent of the fines imposed on her.

If Belle could look so well treating her terminal brain cancer with smoothies then perhaps it would work for her.

Despair is like that – you’ll clutch at what you can. Thank goodness a no-nonsense nurse told Kylie if she abandoned conventional treatment she’d end up in palliative care.

It’s because of people such as Kylie, and Penne and Wolfgang Schwarz, whose son Josh was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer when he was five and died four years later, that I can’t let Belle continue to dodge justice.

Belle befriended the family and used their awful predicament to grow her followers and sell her products.

I also called Belle because I was stung with a parking ticket and it struck me that the $136 I have to cough up is $136 more than Belle has ever paid for her conduct.

A media-shy Gibson outside court in 2019. She was similarly shy when Angela Mopllard called her this week. Picture: News Corp

Who knows how many were influenced and chose to abandon conventional treatments but she should pay for defrauding the public and the charities she promised money.

Or, if she doesn’t have the cash, she should be doing community service, week in, week out, until she’s paid her dues.

Instead, in Feb 2021 her case was marked “abandoned”.

Why? How has this happened? The bedrock of justice is that it needs to be seen to be done. When Federal Court judge Debra Mortimer ordered Belle to pay the $410,000 fine she said she “had deliberately played on the public’s desire to help those less fortunate” and her decision to “use the terminal illness of a little boy” to generate income and promote herself was “unconscionable”.

Belle, she said, had “no rational or reasonable basis” to believe she had cancer.

So what now?

This Thursday Netflix drops Apple Cider Vinegar and the world will learn Belle’s astonishing story.

In response to the inevitable question of what happened to her, are we really going to sheepishly answer: “Nothing”.

No wonder others believe they can get away with similar deception.

Ten years on, I wondered at the very least whether Belle might be contrite. When she answered the phone on Wednesday I asked if we could chat. About Apple Cider Vinegar. And her unpaid fine.

“I’m not interested in a chat thank you,” she said. Then she hung up.

ANGELA LOVES

SPECIAL SUNDAES: Whenever I have young kids over for a meal I finish with make-you-own sundaes. Put out ice cream, fruit, jelly, lollies and homemade chocolate sauce and watch them construct their own desserts. In a tall glass, of course.

SUNSET VIBES: Having rarely worn orange I’m suddenly obsessed with the colour and how well it pairs with every shade of denim. Zara has the most gorgeous orange scarf with stripes and a fringe. It’s also in pink and dusky blue but the orange is spectacular.

NUDE SWIMS: Honestly, there’s nothing better. If you haven’t done it, try it. Night time is more forgiving.

Originally published as My $136 parking fine is more than Belle Gibson ever paid for her crimes