Woman who faked cancer for cash loses Blue Card appeal at QCAT

A brazen Qld liar who scammed people out of money via a years-long cancer hoax wants the state’s administrative watchdog to allow her to look after children.

A woman who carried out a years-long cancer hoax to scam people out of their money has asked for permission to be given a blue card allowing her to take care of children.

A woman who lied about having terminal cancer to scam people’s money has now tried to get approval from the Queensland Government for a Blue Card to look after other people’s children.

But the state’s administrative watchdog has rejected her effort in a scathing rebuke calling her “duplicitous”.

The woman’s efforts have been revealed in a decision published by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal outlining its reasons for refusing her request for it to overturn the state Director General’s decision to deny her a Blue Card in 2023.

In the ruling the woman, who cannot be identified due to an order by QCAT, was revealed to have carried out her deception on the public for several years.

The extraordinary hoax included her showing up at fundraising events with a shaved head, and even at times in hospital clothes and a wheelchair, to raise money for her “incurable” cancer.

The document said her offending included her and her partner using money raised to travel to Brisbane where she would pretend to undergo chemotherapy.

A woman who carried out a years-long cancer hoax to scam people out of their money has asked for permission to be given a Blue Card allowing her to take care of children.

Her partner, who she claimed was unaware of the lie, would stay in a motel across from the hospital.

She claimed she would wait in the foyer pretending to be treated, while buying toys for sick children,

The decision said she claimed to have carried out the hoax because her family would not fight when she was sick, police were told.

The scam went so far, she fabricated the name of an oncologist in a letter to her partner’s work asking for sick leave.

She ultimately pleaded guilty to fraud and forgery charges when her deception was uncovered and was given a wholly suspended jail term, the decision said.

When her first application for a Blue Card so she could work in children’s sports was rejected, she challenged the decision at QCAT.

The Director General said in their submissions the woman’s evidence in her application “appeared to be improbable, implausible and unconvincing” and “claimed to not know much about cancer”, despite having gone to the effort of shaving her head and making herself appear ill.

The extraordinary hoax included her showing up at fundraising events with a shaved head, and even at times in hospital clothes and a wheelchair, to raise money for her “incurable” cancer.

They said her claims about her partner controlling the funds raised, and their being used to buy toys, was also “improbable”.

She also displayed a “lack of regard” for the interests of others.

These included children by showing a “willingness to lie”, her decision to keep the hoax going for years, and a failure to pay restitution to those she defrauded, all of which meant she was “not a good role model for children”.

The woman in her own submissions told the tribunal her life had since changed, and she had undergone therapy.

She claimed she did “not have to be a good role model for children” and instead not pose a risk to them, and the refusal was a “breach of her human rights”.

The tribunal said several references by medical professions supporting her application were “genuine and sincere”, but their weight was reduced as “because none of them acknowledge the harm caused to others both psychologically and financially by (her) deception”.

The tribunal found her conduct “duplicitous” and she was a person who “shows one face to the world, whilst holding private views where she is prepared to lie and scam, views that are not appropriate for a person guiding children”.

“The tribunal found her lack of candour to be deliberately misleading and indicative of a clear absence of insight or concern into the effect of her deception upon others,” the decision said.

“(She) does not show any remorse for her actions, apart from how they have affected her.”

The tribunal also found her conduct “duplicitous”, and she was a person who showed “one face to the world, whilst holding private views where she is prepared to lie and scam, views that are not appropriate for a person guiding children”.

“Children have a right to expect that the adults guiding and assisting them are people with their best interests at heart and not people who will exploit a situation placing children at risk of harm,” the tribunal said.

It found her case was “exceptional” and refused her application on those grounds, saying “she poses an unacceptable risk to children, such that she should not be given a Blue Card”.

Originally published as Woman who faked cancer for cash loses Blue Card appeal at QCAT