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A coffee cart owner took advantage of the kindness of her community by pretending she had cancer to avoid business payments.
Mandy Mclennan raised thousands of dollars from supporters under false pretenses, including members of her own family.
Mclennan, who operated a coffee business in Timaru on New Zealand’s South Island, even pretended to have undergone a stem cell transplant and appeared in local media as his false story spread.
South Island DOn Thursday, Unedin District Court heard that the 42-year-old woman had been renting a cart for her business in March 2022 when she began blaming her late payments on life-threatening cancer.
Mandy Mclennan pretended to have cancer to avoid paying business expenses
Between April 11, 2023 and July 24, 2023, he missed several lease payments totaling $1,210, but his landlord excused them due to his alleged struggle with illness.
In May of that year, a friend created a page on the fundraising website Givealittle for Mclennan to help in the “fight” against her fake illness, reports Stuff.
For that campaign, Mclennan said he had been diagnosed with cancer in September 2020 after thinking it was simply “glandular fever” and was “surprised” to learn it was chronic myeloid leukemia.
“It affects everyone differently,” Mclennan wrote under the campaign title “Hope for Mandy.”
Mclennan went on to say that he needed to raise money for a stem cell transplant “to help me finally beat this disease.”
“It is very difficult for me to ask for help, but I need enough when my business is not working (because) I cannot be present during treatment,” she wrote.
In June 2023, she ‘reported’ having undergone the transplant on the Givealittle page.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s been a difficult and scary road, but I’m determined to be stronger,” she wrote.
The scammer even appeared at the Love Your Local Awards, which celebrated small businesses in Timaru.
‘The support has been incredible 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,” Mclennan told the Timaru Herald in an interview.
“I didn’t realize how many people have such kind hearts.”
As Mclennan’s (left) false story spread, it generated donations from supporters.
On June 19, 2023, Givealittle paid Mclennan $2,739, according to police evidence.
The friend who created 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 of having cancer, the defendant made significant financial gains from these endeavors totaling $7,450.20,” the police summary of facts said.
The money was used to pay Mclennan’s debts and other expenses.
However, the hoax was unraveling, and in late June 2023, police began to suspect that the cancer story was false.
In an interview with police in August 2023, Mclennan admitted that he had found himself in dire financial straits and had made up the cancer story to give him respite.
He said no one else knew it was a lie.
Mclennan will be sentenced later in the Timaru District Court.