Queensland police have arrested a 53-year-old Beaudesert woman on fraud charges in relation to an alleged wedding dress Ponzi scheme worth more than $100,000.

Detective Senior Constable Owen Rodgers from the Cairns Criminal Investigations Branch said police would allege the woman defrauded 70 customers in the Cairns, Gold Coast, Townsville and Mount Isa regions.

“We’ll allege the woman was taking money for orders and not making the orders, falsely representing counterfeit dresses as designer dresses to clients,” he said.

He said it was alleged the woman was also trying to on-sell previous clients’ dresses in either their original form or had altered the gowns for re-sale.

“In some cases brides were returning their dresses for dry cleaning and it’s alleged she was on-selling them to other customers,” Detective Senior Constable Rodgers said.

“At this stage of the investigation we’re alleging that in excess of $110,000 of detriment has been caused to the victims.”

The woman was arrested at a Beaudesert address on Tuesday and was set to appear in Cairns Magistrates Court on 70 counts of fraud on January 30.

Queensland police established Operation Victor Rickenbacker in July after a Cairns woman came forward with a complaint.

It was alleged she gave her custom wedding dress to a Cairns-based bridal company in September 2022 for dry cleaning, only to find it had been sold to someone else via social media.

As part of the operation, detectives executed a search warrant on properties in the suburbs of Edmonton, Cairns North and Smithfield where they seized electronic devices, business documents and replica wedding gowns.

Detective Senior Constable Rodgers said during the six-month investigation, a further 69 people contacted police with similar complaints between January 2019 and July 2023.