Police arrest US beauty queen for faking cancer, scamming people in fundraisers

Authorities recently accused a former beauty queen of faking her cancer diagnosis and allegedly creating schemes to raise thousands of dollars for her treatment. US police said the 23-year-old Miss Pennsylvania US International was arrested on Monday and charged with felony counts of theft by deception and receiving stolen property.

Investigators said Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates, of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, announced she had had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in March 2013. Weaver-Gates got the public's sympathy that led people to support her fundraisers to pay for her medical bills.

Police told WJAC that Weaver-Gates recently took part in a fundraiser event in April and raised $14,000. But the scheme was uncovered when the police received an anonymous letter from an unknown person, stating that they should investigate Weaver-Gates "for faking cancer," State Police Trooper Thomas Stock told ABC News.

The police then conducted an investigation and found no evidence that she had ever undergone treatment for cancer. Weaver-Gates’s efforts to make people believe she had cancer were then described as "an elaborate scheme," Stock said. He added Weaver-Gates even shaved her head to make it appear as if she went through cancer treatments.

According to Stock, Weaver-Gates said she was a patient at Geisinger Medical Centre and UPMC Medical Centres, but both facilities told investigators that there were no records of her ever receiving any treatment. Investigators have also revealed the beauty queen apparently have no idea of her doctors' names and other important details.

To date, Weaver-Gates is being held in the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte, and was set free temporarily with $150,000 bail, police said. She is due in court for a preliminary hearing scheduled on Aug 19. Weaver-Gates did not want to incriminate herself and asked the police to allow her to have an attorney.

The Butler's Beauties who organised the pageant has also taken part in the case. In a statement on their Facebook page, the organisation said that they will strip off the Miss Pennsylvania U.S. International title from Weaver-Gates.

"We at Butler's Beauties are saddened to hear of the news of Miss Brandy Weaver-Gates. We were also led to believe that she was dealing with this horrible disease and stood by her as she struggled being a beauty queen and a cancer patient," Butler's Beauties wrote. The organisation will require Weave-Gates to return her crown and sash upon her release from detention.

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