June 27th 2024.
In a recent case in Melbourne, a man was sentenced for impersonating a marriage celebrant and conducting five fraudulent wedding ceremonies. It was discovered that this 31-year-old individual had been posing as an authorized celebrant and charging unsuspecting couples between $700 to $1000 for his services. This deceitful act took place between March 2022 and April 2023.
According to the Australian Federal Police, the fake celebrant illegally solemnized the marriages of five couples in Victoria during this period. It was the fifth couple who finally reported the man to the authorities after they were unable to find his name on the register of authorized celebrants. Upon further investigation, the police confirmed with the Attorney-General's department that this man was not, in fact, a registered marriage celebrant under the Commonwealth.
The man was arrested in February and appeared in the Melbourne Magistrate's Court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to four counts of solemnization of a marriage by an unauthorized person and one count of impersonation of a public official. As a result, he was given a six-month community corrections order with the condition of performing 50 hours of community work.
Detective Superintendent Donna Tankard of the AFP expressed the severity of the situation, stating that this fraudulent act had serious consequences for the couples involved. She emphasized that impersonating an authorized marriage celebrant in Australia is a highly deceitful act and could have had financial, religious, and legal repercussions for the victims.
Tankard also made it clear that the AFP has a zero-tolerance policy towards fraud and other forms of corruption. She assured that they will continue to work closely with their state and Commonwealth law enforcement partners to actively target, identify, and disrupt fraudsters who are taking advantage of members of the community.
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