Brooklyn Woman Gets One Year In Jail For Cancer Scam
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn woman who admitted to running a fake cancer scam has been sentenced to one year in jail.
Brittney Schmidt along with her partner Vincent Fina pleaded guilty in September to a felony charge of scheme to defraud.
Prosecutors said they collected thousands of dollars claiming it was for a Staten Island boy with brain cancer, but instead used the money to buy drugs. Schmidt, a college educated medical assistant, and Fina, who's in construction, had lost their jobs and turned to heroin.
The couple often used a photo lifted from the GoFundMe page of 6-year-old Gianni Incandela, of Rossville, Staten Island, who has a brain tumor.
At her sentencing, Schmidt pleaded with the judge to not give her jail time and apologized to her victims.
The judge said even though Schmidt has an addiction it did not give her the license to exploit a family.
"She didn't even turn around and have the audacity to look at us and she waited categorically until the end until she was being sentenced to apologize to us, she could've apologized to us on any given day at any given time," Incandela's grandmother said.
Fina will be sentenced at the end of the month.
The couple's 11-year-old son is now living with his grandmother.