A 53-year-old woman from Beaudesert,south of Brisbane,has been charged with 70 counts of fraud and will appear in Cairns Magistrates Court on January 30.
Queensland police seized replica bridal gowns during an investigation into a long-running wedding scam.Queensland Police Service
The investigation was launched in July last year after a Cairns woman complained that a bridal company had not returned her custom-made wedding dress.
The woman allegedly gave the dress to the company for dry cleaning in September 2022 but later noticed on social media it had sold to another person.
In the months that followed,police discovered 69 other complainants – some had made allegations as early as January 2019 – and raided properties in Edmonton,Cairns North and Smithfield.
Detective Senior Constable Owen Rodgers said it was alleged the Beaudesert woman took money for dresses she failed to provide and falsely represented counterfeit dresses as designer dresses.
Rodgers said the woman was on-selling dresses that were only meant to be dry-cleaned or,“more concerningly,disassembling those dresses and then utilising them to make other dresses to sell to other brides”.
“At this stage of the investigation we are alleging that in excess of $110,000 of detriment has been caused to the victims,complainants,” Rodgers said.
Most alleged victims were in Cairns but Rodgers said some were in Townsville,Mt Isa and the Gold Coast,and police believe others may yet come forward.
Rodgers said a store in Cairns was central to the alleged operation. He would not comment on whether other people were allegedly involved and still faced arrest.
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