Pennsylvania, July 29, 2016 – Brandy Weaver Gates (24), former Miss Pennsylvania U.S International was on Tuesday jailed for faking leukemia ailment in March 2013 to raise over $30,000.
Gates was arrested in August last year and the organizers who were furious about the scam demanded a return of the crown and sash.
Weaver-Gates admitted in court that she raised over $30,000 after defrauding 150 people, many of whom had cancer themselves.
“This was the ultimate betrayal of our giving community and those who actually battle cancer and their loved ones,” District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said in a news release. “She actually stole that time and money from giving people who were actually suffering from cancer, some of whom lived near her and have since passed,” the statement added.
Her scheme collapsed when family and friends became suspicious when her hair grew black after shaving, followed by her insistence on attending chemotherapy treatments alone.
Her friends and family decided to inquire in the hospital where she claimed to seek treatment . It was during their investigation that that the hospital said there was no record of Gates being a patient of cancer.
Weaver-Gates was sentenced to four years in prison and five years of probation after pleading guilty to multiple charges of theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
