A judge has been urged to “throw the book” at cancer faker Belle Gibson as the Federal Court prepares to try her case despite her refusing to show up.
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According to AAP Gibson did not front up to Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday to face allegations she falsely mislead consumers into thinking she’d recovered from terminal brain cancer through healthy eating and natural therapies and scammed fundraising money.
Her company Inkerman Road Nominees Pty Ltd (formerly known as Belle Gibson Pty Ltd) is in liquidation owing nearly $140,000.
The watchdog also accuses her of engaging in misleading or deceptive commerce by making the claims to promote her Whole Pantry app and book.
Consumer Affairs Victoria will push ahead with the civil case in her absence on Tuesday, aiming to see her severely fined for duping thousands of followers.
Gibson has failed to file a defence and friends told the newspaper she was “hoping it would all go away” if she didn’t respond.
The Whole Pantry app was available for purchase between August 2013 and May 2016, and had been downloaded more than 115,00 times from iTunes.
The transcripts reveal that when Penguin asked if there were any spokespeople from the charities that could attest to her fundraising work, Ms Gibson said they were in Cambodia and Indonesia and “don’t speak English”. “My doctors freaked out but they couldn’t stop me”, Ms Button quoted Gibson as saying.
Ms Gibson built a social media empire around the claim she had survived terminal brain cancer with nutrition and holistic medicine, before admitting she never had the disease.
Ms Button said Gibson claimed she fell pregnant two weeks after being told she couldn’t have children because of her cancer.
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“I read that as giving her a chance to … consider what she said”, Justice Debra Mortimer said.
