A judge says a woman who faked a brain cancer diagnosis could have been delusional.
Belle Gibson has been found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct over her fake cancer claims which saw her make hundreds of thousands of dollars from a cookbook and an app.
Consumer Affairs Victoria brought a civil case against Ms Gibson alleging she and her company, which is now in liquidation, had breached consumer law.
Federal Court Justice Debra Mortimer has ruled she is satisfied most, but not all, of the allegations have been proven against the 25-year-old.
Justice Mortimer found Ms Gibson's statements about having cancer were obviously false.
"I am satisfied that, in the context the statements were made, members of the community reading those statements would be erroneously led to believe that Ms Gibson was suffering from terminal brain cancer when this was never the case."
But the judge said in determining an appropriate penalty, the court needed to consider whether Ms Gibson was delusional and genuinely thought she had brain cancer, even if there was no rational or reasonable basis to do so.
"At the moment I am not satisfied on the evidence...that I should find Ms Gibson had no genuine belief she had brain cancer.
"This is quite different from a finding that there was no reasonable or rational basis for her public statements that she did. Not all human beings are rational and reasonable all of the time.
"A finding of no genuine belief would involve a finding to the effect that Ms Gibson concocted a ruse from the start, in order to deceive consumers into purchasing her products, knowing that she was doing so on an entirely falsified basis.
"I would need more persuasive evidence...to make such a finding. It seems to me that, at least in some respects, it might be open to find that Ms Gibson suffered from a series of delusions about her health condition.
"I make no such finding: rather, I simply note it might be open to do so as part of explaining why I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities that, as the Director would have it, Ms Gibson “did not really believe” she had cancer."
Ms Gibson did not attend court for the judgment and has not attended earlier hearings.
Submissions on penalty and costs in the case are to be made later this month, Justice Mortimer said.
