为了一场完美婚礼和加勒比海岛蜜月之旅，美国纽约州一名女子假装成癌症末期患者骗取了周围好心人1.3万多美元的资助。日前，这名女子刚刚服完8周的刑期出狱，她还须将骗来的资金如数还给那些好心人，完成300小时的社区服务，另需监外察看五年。据悉，这名女子现年25岁，2010年5月利用好心人的资助与丈夫举行婚礼并且赴南加勒比海的阿鲁巴岛度蜜月。之后，这名女子的丈夫联系当地一家报纸揭露其假装癌症患者骗钱的行为，两人随即离婚，男方未被起诉。
A New York bride who faked having terminal cancer to swindle well-wishers into funding her dream wedding and honeymoon to the Caribbean on Wednesday was ordered to repay more than $13,000 to her victims, prosecutors said.
Jessica Vega, 25, pleaded guilty last month to fraud and forgery charges for deceiving people in the Hudson Valley area of New York into thinking she had only a few months to live, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said. Moved by her tale, individuals and businesses donated thousands of dollars to pay for her wedding in May 2010 and her honeymoon in Aruba.
Her scheme unraveled after her husband, Michael O'Connell, contacted the Times Herald-Record in Orange County to say his bride had faked her illness. He was not charged, and the couple have since divorced, although the Times Herald-Record reported he was there to pick her up from jail on Wednesday.
"To prey on people's emotions by pretending to have a terminal illness is unconscionable," Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said in a statement. "I am pleased that the community members, who felt so compelled to generously help a neighbor in need, will be given back their hard-earned money."
Besides repaying $13,368.48 to her victims, Vega was sentenced to time already served in jail, must do 300 hours of community service and serve five years on probation. She spent eight weeks in jail before her release on Wednesday.
Vega agreed to hand over the money to repay the nine known victims ahead of her sentencing on Wednesday in the hope of receiving a more lenient sentence, and the checks are due to be sent out to her victims over the coming week, a spokeswoman for the attorney general said.
An attorney for Vega did not immediately respond to queries.