NEARLY £4500 has been refunded to those who contributed to a psychic medium group's appeal over false claims Scots husband-and-wife frontline NHS workers died from Covid-19 leaving behind three young children.
The Sixthsense group said police had become involved after hosting a four-hour online fundraiser to hundreds of followers while telling the "heart-wrenching story" of the front-line workers who had succumbed to the virus and died "side by side".
They had insisted to followers that it was not a scam, after one follower asked if there was "any sort of proof" of the incident before anyone sent any money.
The Where Spirit Meets Science group led by Nottinghamshire-based psychic John Sixthsense, whose real surname is Harris, said they had raised over £5500 to support the children, a six year old girl, a four year old boy with autism and his ten-month-old baby brother who they said were staying with grandparents.
John Sixthsense and Dave Denman
Mr Harris promised to pay back all the money last week after saying they had discovered the information from a fan called Helen was false, and that the police had become involved.
More than 200 people gave to a GoFundMe Page called 'NHS kids left alone due to Covid19' after it was launched last week by the wife of one of the appeal organisers and main contact for the event, Dave Denman.
GoFundMe has now confirmed that the £4,500 raised on their platform had been returned to donors.
"This campaign was deactivated by the campaign organiser and all the money raised has been refunded.
"GoFundMe always remains in control of the funds until we are confident they are going to the right place. In the very rare case that they don't we are the only platform to offer a full refund guarantee," said a spokesman.
After it emerged on Thursday that the story of the dead NHS workers was false, Mr Harris produced messages to show to donors in a live video from Helen from Coatbridge to show where they got their information from. One message stated that she "must have misheard" and that the couple from North Lanarkshire had not been coronavirus victims and were not health workers.
One message claimed it was "a story" made up by an uncle to stop talk about the reasons for the deaths, believed connected to drugs.
A sample of the initial appeal.
Breaking the news to the Where Spirit Meet Science group, Mr Denman declared: "The family home has been sealed for deep clean so these babies have no clothes, they have nothing. Their lives are upside down. This is heartbreaking."
"I believe they have saved so many lives and unfortunately guys, their babies, will never see their mum and dad again," said Mr Denman.
"So please can we come together, we need to be together for this. Those kids don't deserve any of this."
In a new message to supporters, Mr Harris said: "We have got no further control over what GoFundMe are going to do... they are just going to give you your money back.
"If you then want to go on further and make a donation to the NHS or anyone else yourself I would welcome that.
"I want to give a big shout out to the mother who has still lost a beautiful daughter. She is the true victim in this. And it has caused a lot of upset.
"I have to heal now because I have been badly affected by a lot.
"What we need to do remember is that we are paranormal teams, not soap operas."
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