A coffee cart owner took advantage of the kindness of her community by pretending to have cancer to avoid business payments.
Mandy Mclennan has raised thousands of dollars from benefactors, including members of her own family, under false pretenses.
Ms Mclennan, who operated a coffee business in Timaru on New Zealand’s South Island, even pretended to have had a stem cell transplant and appeared in local media as her fake story spread.
D. from the South IslandUnedin District Court heard on Thursday that the 42-year-old had rented a trolley for her business in March 2022 when she started blaming her missed payments on having life-threatening cancer.
Mandy Mclennan faked cancer to avoid business expenses
Between April 11, 2023 and July 24, 2023, she missed multiple lease payments totaling $1,210, but the owner excused them due to her claimed battle with the disease.
In May that year, a friend set up a page on the fundraising website Givealittle for Mclennan to support the ‘fight’ against her fake disease, reports Stuff.
Before that campaign, Mclennan said she was diagnosed with cancer in September 2020 after thinking it was just “glandular fever” and was “shocked” to learn it was chronic myelogenous leukemia.
“It affects everyone differently,” Mclennan wrote under the campaign title “Hope for Mandy.”
Mclennan went on to say that she needed to raise money for a stem cell transplant “to help me finally beat this disease.”
“It’s really hard for me to ask for help, but I need enough that I can’t be there when my business isn’t running (because) I can’t be there through treatment,” she wrote.
In June 2023, she “reported” that she had had the transplant on the Givealittle page.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s been a rocky and scary path, but I’m determined that I’m stronger,” she wrote.
The fraudster even featured in the Love Your Local Awards, which celebrated small businesses in Timaru.
‘The support has been amazing and I feel like I have a great community behind me. I feel like all of Timaru is behind me as I get through this,” Ms Mclennan told the Timaru Herald in an interview.
“I didn’t realize how many people have such kind hearts.”
As Mclennan’s (left) fake story spread, it led to donations from well-wishers
According to police evidence, Mclennan received $2,739 from Givealittle on June 19, 2023.
The friend who set up the page also held a garage sale for Ms Mclennan, raising $400. Mclennan’s mother held a fundraiser for her daughter in the town of Waitahuna, which raised $3,101.
“Due to her claims that she has cancer, the defendant has derived significant financial benefit from these initiatives, totaling $7,450.20,” the police summary said.
The money was used to pay Mclennan’s debts and other expenses.
However, the ruse was unraveled and at the end of June 2023, the police began to suspect that the cancer story was false.
In an interview with police in August 2023, Mclennan admitted she was in financial difficulties and had made up the cancer story to give her some breathing space.
She said no one else knew it was a lie.
Mclennan will be sentenced at a later date at the Timaru District Court.