At least 70 brides allegedly stung by fraudulent wedding dress business in Queensland

It started after a bride allegedly took her custom wedding dress to a Far North Queensland bridal shop to have it dry-cleaned in September 2022.

She allegedly then saw on social media that her beloved one-off gown had somehow been sold to someone else.

Police began investigating the Cairns bridal business, and had another 69 people contact them to complain about similar incidents between January 2019 and July 2023.

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A 53-year-old woman has now been arrested by Cairns detectives in the rural town of Beaudesert, inland from the Gold Coast, 1800km away.

She has been charged with 70 counts of fraud and is due to front Cairns Magistrates Court on January 30, Queensland Police said.

She faces multiple charges related to wedding dresses, including selling fake designer frocks and selling dresses handed over for dry cleaning.

Detective Senior Constable Owen Rogers told media the woman was allegedly "taking payment for orders and not making the orders, falsely representing counterfeit dresses as designer dresses to clients and using previous clients' dresses to attempt to directly sell to or assisting in manufacturing gowns for other customers".

It happened at the shop in Cairns between January 2019 and July 2023.

"In some cases, brides were returning their dresses for dry cleaning and it's alleged that she was either then on selling them to other customers, or more concerningly, disassembling those dresses and then utilising them to make other dresses to then sell to other brides," Rogers said.

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He said it's alleged at least one bride went to pick up her dress from the business and was given a counterfeit copy of it instead.

Senior Constable Rogers said it was believed 70 people had lost a combined total of more than $110,000 to the crimes.

The victims are mostly in Cairns, but some were also from the Gold Coast, Townsville, Mount Isa and other nearby areas, he said.

Senior Constable Rogers said police were looking into others involved in the scheme.

Police have seized electronic devices, documents and replica wedding gowns during raids on properties in Edmonton, Cairns North and Smithfield.

Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Matt Hogan said the investigation took six months.

“Detectives worked tirelessly and in cooperation with the 70 alleged victims during this six-month operation,” Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Hogan said.

“There may be more victims yet to contact police, if you have any information about suspected fraudulent businesses, please report it to Policelink.”