Charges over alleged $100k charity fraud

The trio behind an alleged $100,000 fake charity scam have been charged.

Three Harcourt men, aged 31 to 49, face five charges each for allegedly setting up fundraising stalls in various locations in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania and collecting more than $100,000 over four years.

One of the men was due to front the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday while the two others were bailed to appear at the same court next Tuesday, June 6.

Pictures of terminally ill children were allegedly used to help the three men raise money at the fundraising stalls, police said on Tuesday.

It is alleged the money, raised over four years, never made it to the families of sick children as promised, but was spent on cigarettes, clothes and other personal products.

Among the victims is a Bendigo family who had already lost two of their children and were fighting to save a third.

Police were not clear exactly how the family was linked. “It is heartbreaking to see real people with real terminally ill children ripped off,” Detective Sergeant Colin Grenfell said in a statement.

AAP

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