A Melbourne man who pretended to be an authorised celebrant and performed fake ceremonies solemnising five invalid marriages has pleaded guilty to impersonating a commonwealth officer.
Australian federal police said the 31-year-old pretended to be a celebrant while defrauding five couples of $700 to $1,000 each for his marriage services between March 2022 and April 2023.
“The fake celebrant illegally solemnised the marriages of five couples in Victoria on their respective wedding days during the same period,” the force said. “All marriages performed by the offender are considered invalid.”
AFP officers started investigating the man after the fifth couple reported him to police because they were unable to locate his name on the register of authorised celebrants.
He was arrested on 19 February after the Attorney General’s Department confirmed he was not an authorised marriage celebrant.
The man faced Melbourne magistrates court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to four charges of solemnisation of a marriage by an unauthorised person and one count of impersonation of public official.
He was sentenced to a six-month community corrections order and must perform 50 hours of community work.
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“Impersonating an authorised and registered marriage celebrant in Australia is an extremely deceitful act and this could have had serious financial, religious, and legal consequences for the couples who were victims of this deception,” said an AFP detective superintendent, Donna Tankard.