Food blogger who faked brain tumour to sell book faces massive fines
BLOGGER Belle Gibson, who lied about beating a normally deadly brain tumour through healthy eating, exploited public generosity by falsely claiming most of her income went to charities, a judge has said.
Australian Federal Court Justice Debra Mortimer ruled Ms Gibson’s misleading claims about her charitable donations from the sales of her cook book ‘The Whole Pantry’ and a related app constituted unconscionable conduct under Australian law.
“All Ms Gibson’s marketing of herself and her company projected the image of a successful, booming enterprise with a wholesale dedication to charitable giving,” the judge said.
Despite Ms Gibson saying “a large part of everything the company earns is now donated to charities”, only AUS$10,000 (€7,140) of the earnings of AUS$420,000 (€300,000) from her company Inkerman Road Nominees went to charity.
Deceptive
One of her nominated charities, Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, raised the alarm with the Victoria state consumer watchdog after no donations materialised.
Ms Gibson was not represented when a civil trial was heard in September on charges of misleading and deceptive conduct under trade law.
She could be fined up to AUS$200,000 (€142,870) and her company, which is now in liquidation, could be fined up to AUS$1.1m (€785,800) at a penalty hearing later this month.
Ms Gibson built a public profile from 2013 around her claim through her book, Instagram and Facebook accounts that she was diagnosed with brain cancer as a 20-year-old in 2009 and was given four months to live.
She claimed to have rejected conventional cancer treatments in favour of a quest to heal herself naturally.
With media questioning many of her claims, she admitted in 2015 that she never had cancer.