Federal court orders disgraced wellness blogger to pay penalty after she sold a cookbook and app after claiming to have cured cancer naturally

The disgraced wellness blogger Belle Gibson has been ordered by the federal court in Melbourne to repay $410,000 to the state of Victoria.

For the past few months the court had been struggling to decide on an appropriate penalty for Gibson, after she sold thousands of copies of her cookbook and wellness app off the back of false claims she cured numerous cancers through following a healthy lifestyle.

'None of it’s true': wellness blogger Belle Gibson admits she never had cancer Read more

The 25-year-old has failed to show up to court since proceedings brought against her by Consumer Affairs Victoria began last year and has also not responded to evidence before the court or submitted her own.

Consumer Affairs Victoria brought the case, and its legal counsel told federal court justice Debra Mortimer on Thursday morning that Gibson could face a maximum penalty of $1.1m for contravening five consumer laws.

But in June Mortimer said there was no point in issuing a significant fine against a person or company if they had no means of paying that penalty. In making her order on Thursday, Mortimer said Gibson would be able to pay the penalty in instalments.

Gibson’s product, The Whole Pantry, included a website, mobile phone app and recipe book of the same name. Her story of shunning conventional medicine and curing herself with food began to fall apart in 2015 when it was revealed she had not made thousands of dollars in charity donations she promised off the back of money raised through her success.

In an interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly in 2016, Gibson admitted she never had cancer at all, saying: “None of it’s true.”

On Monday night Mortimer said her executive assistant had received an email from Gibson in response to notification that the penalty would be handed down on Thursday. Gibson simply responded: “Thank you for your update. Confirming receipt of your email. Much appreciated, Belle.” She was not present in court for the judgment.

Belle Gibson mimicked countless fake healers. They aren't delusional | Ranjana Srivastava Read more

Mortimer ordered Gibson to pay a penalty of $90,000 for her false claims that she would make donations for the sale of her app; $90,000 for false claims her company would make charity donations; $50,000 for false claims that following her app launch she would donate to charity; $150,000 for false claims that she would make donations to the Schwartz family, whose son suffered brain cancer; and $30,000 for false claims that she would donate to charity off the back of a Mother’s Day event.

“I note also that Ms Gibson has already been ordered to pay a percentage of the director’s [of Consumer Affairs Victoria] legal costs of this proceeding, fixed at $30,000,” Mortimer’s judgment read.



“If Ms Gibson were to actually pay the pecuniary penalties imposed (whether by instalments or otherwise), in the court’s respectful opinion … it may be appropriate for consideration to be given to whether there is a mechanism by which some or all of the funds can be donated to some or all of the organisations, and people, Ms Gibson had promised would receive donations.

“In that way, some good might still come for the vulnerable people, and the organisations supporting them, which were indirectly drawn into this unconscionable sequence of events.”