California wedding planner jailed for duping Good Samaritans out of thousands in wildfire donation scam

A woman has been sentenced to nearly six months in jail for scamming more than $2,000 out of Good Samaritans by pretending her partner was a firefighter battling the blazes that plagued California last year.

Ashley Bemis, a 28-year-old wedding planner from San Clemente, pleaded guilty on Friday to a litany of charges after encouraging people to donate money to her that she would, in turn, pass on to the fire department battling the Holy Fire that hit Orange and Riverside counties in Southern California in August 2018. She claimed to be in a relationship with a firefighter named Shane Goodman, but authorities later determined that the relationship, and Goodman, were both a lie. In addition to the fire donation scam, she has also been accused of faking three pregnancies and claiming she gave birth to a stillborn child.

She was convicted of one count of grand theft, four counts of second-degree burglary, six counts of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime and two dozen fraud counts. On Monday, she was sentenced to 177 days in a county jail, the Daily Mail reports.

Authorities began investigating after Bemis posted photos of herself with her firefighter hubby 'Shane,' which attracted the attention of a local fire captain, who reported her. She was arrested a month later, after authorities learned the depth of her crimes.

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Bemis convinced Facebook friends to donate money through a post she wrote, describing her willingness to meet people individually to donate money and supplies such as socks, sports drinks, water, and camping equipment.

'My Shane works for Cal Fire and is out on the Holy Fire right now. I also have two other family members and many friends out on this fire and other fires burning here in California," she wrote. 'I received a text today from Shane saying it's pretty much a living hell out there battling the unpredictable "Holy Hell Fire."'

'I wanted to put it out there to everyone and say I will happily meet you and pick up any donation to the firefighters and first responders that are on the front lines right now," she continued.

In order to make her plan seem more believable, she reportedly went to the Holy Fire command post in Irvine, California to drop off some of the items donated to her, but kept a pile for herself.

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In their investigation, authorities also discovered that Bemis had allegedly been scamming people for years. In 2012, Quinn and Starla Bork held a baby shower for Bemis, spending several hundred dollars to help her celebrate her pregnancy.

'It was money she really couldn't afford but she wanted to help Ashley," Quinn said at the time.

As it turned out, Bemis was using prosthetics to fake the pregnancy, and told another friend the baby was "stillborn." Then, she reportedly re-sold the gifts she received at the shower.

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In November 2018, before she was arrested, she appeared on "The Dr. Phil Show" and was confronted by victims of her crimes related to the Holy Fire donations.

“I was trying to honestly help the firefighters,” she said at the time.

Fox News' Katherine Lam contributed to the reporting of this story.