Overview

• Cardiff Crown Court fined Charlotte Blackwell £50 and ordered £150 costs after she missed required appointments for her 120-hour unpaid-work order, leaving about 55 hours outstanding.
• Judge Eugene Egan warned her to complete the sentence, after officials said she attended 21 of 34 appointments with three unacceptable absences and two non-compliant attendances.
• Blackwell earlier admitted four fraud counts over a fabricated overseas wedding, using fake flight and hotel documents to obtain £12,682 from relatives and friends including Paula Thomas, Helen Morse, Sue Chapman and Tracey Roberts.
• At sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rees KC ordered compensation of £3,500 each to Ms Thomas, Ms Chapman and Ms Morse, and £3,250 to Ms Roberts, reflecting the distress caused beyond their original payments.
• She previously received a suspended 10-month sentence for trying to obtain £4,000 from children’s cancer charity Morgan’s Army, with the court noting an administrative error that stopped the two cases being handled together; her defense cited gambling, financial strain and remorse.