Woman who claimed to have cancer, be Fort McMurray fire evacuee guilty of fraud
CALGARY — A Calgary woman who pretended to have cancer and claimed to be a Fort McMurray fire evacuee to cash in on donations has pleaded guilty to fraud.
Jennifer Halford, 34, entered guilty pleas on seven counts of fraud Tuesday dating back to the beginning of the year.
Halford claimed she had aggressive breast cancer and that she and her family had lost everything in the northern Alberta spring wildfires. She received donations including gift cards, food, clothing, babysitting and beauty treatments.
“She effectively manipulated those two fictitious components of her story in order to gain sympathy and various items of charity from the goodwill of other people that she either knew in the community or to whom she was a stranger,” said Crown prosecutor Jason Wuttunee in an interview outside of court.