BRIDGEND — Victims of a fraudster who invented a wedding to trick relatives and friends out of more than £12,000 are still waiting for most of their compensation, almost a year after a judge ordered repayment.

Charlotte Blackwell, 32, from Bridgend, was told to pay £13,750 in compensation to four victims in March 2025 after a scam built around false wedding plans in Turkey. She avoided an immediate prison sentence and agreed to pay £400 a month after sobbing in relief in court.

But the group says she has paid only £163 in total, with no payments made in the past four months. The Ministry of Justice said it could not discuss the details of enforcement because of data protection rules.

How the bogus wedding fraud worked

Blackwell admitted taking £12,682 between 2022 and 2024 from people she had drawn into what they thought was a real wedding party. The money was supposedly for a ceremony in Turkey, but the event did not exist.

The victims were her then-fiancé Daniel Thomas’s mother, Paula Thomas, and three of Thomas’s friends: Helen Morse, Sue Chapman and Tracey Roberts. They paid sums ranging from £2,803 to £3,311 after being shown fake flight confirmations, bogus emails from travel agents and even made-up bank transactions.

Blackwell also created fake email accounts to make it appear she was dealing with travel agents and wedding contacts. One of the victims later found that staff at Tui had tried to contact a wedding co-ordinator who did not exist.

What the court ordered Blackwell to pay

The judge ordered Blackwell to pay £3,500 each to Paula Thomas, Helen Morse and Sue Chapman, and £3,250 to Tracey Roberts, reflecting the extra distress caused by the scam. She was also handed a suspended 12-month jail term, 120 hours of unpaid work and five days of rehabilitation activity.

Her barrister said she would be able to meet the payments because she was working full-time as an estate agent on £1,700 a month and also receiving Universal Credit. Blackwell later returned to court in October 2025 after being fined for breaching her community service order.

The victims say the gap between the order and what has been paid has left them frustrated and disillusioned. One, Helen Morse, said she was owed almost £3,500 and felt there was nowhere to turn.

Victims say they are getting no clear answers

Morse, an administrator at a GP surgery, said she and the others had welcomed Blackwell when she became engaged to Daniel Thomas and did not suspect they were being misled. She said she even took on a second cleaning job to help pay for the fake holiday.

When she checked with the travel firm, she was told no holiday had been booked and no genuine wedding arrangement existed. Morse said the experience had made her far more cautious about trusting people.

She added that repeated requests for updates from the Ministry of Justice had brought the same vague response each time. By October 2025, the victims had received only £25.45 each since the order was imposed seven months earlier, and later payments amounted to another £15.30 each.

The Ministry of Justice said it can take money directly from an offender’s wages or benefits, or seek a warrant to seize possessions if necessary. It also said people can be sent to prison if they fail to pay and the court has no way to recover the debt.

Earlier charity fraud case adds to the background

Blackwell had already avoided jail in August 2024 after admitting a separate fraud against children’s cancer charity Morgan’s Army, which supports south Wales families affected by childhood cancer.

In that case she lied about her daughter needing expensive treatment in Germany and took £4,000 from the charity. After the deception was uncovered, the money was frozen and recovered.

Her barrister said Blackwell had faced a difficult time after her daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer, gave up work and gambled in an attempt to recover money. She has since put blocks on gambling websites, according to her lawyer.

The Ministry of Justice said it takes recovery of financial penalties seriously and described the crimes as heartless, but the victims say that has not yet translated into repayment.

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