PENNSYLVANIA  (TIP): Police in Pennsylvania have arrested a beauty queen for faking cancer. Miss Pennsylvania champion, Brandi Lee Weaver-Gates, of Bellefonte was charged with theft by deception and receiving stolen property. The 23-year-old allegedly would tell she had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and reportedly took money from events held on her behalf to fund her treatment. Investigators said they believed she did not have cancer and called her efforts to make people believe she had it “an elaborate scheme”.

Trooper Thomas Stock, state police investigator, said she would have relatives drive her to the hospital for treatment, wait inside and return hours late to make it appear she had been undergoing treatment. He said the allegations came to light via an anonymous letter that claimed she couldn’t name any of her doctors. Police said her most recent event was “Bingo for Brandi” in April which raised $14,000, though she was having events organized since September 2013. In 2013 a man named Jerry King, who lost two uncles to leukaemia, organised a $10 a head fundraiser for her called “Brandi’s Benefit Bash”.