Gold Coast wedding videographer fined $7500 after leaving newlyweds in the lurch

• A Gold Coast wedding videographer has been found guilty and been fined $7500 following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
• James McDonald Connell was paid more than $27,000 for wedding videos that were never supplied.

A Gold Coast wedding videographer has been fined $7500 after an OFT investigation found he left seven newlywed couples in the lurch after failing to supply video services he was contracted for.

James McDonald Connell, who traded as Anchored Cinemas, was found guilty of seven counts of wrongly accepting payment under Australian Consumer Law in the Southport Magistrates Court today.

OFT’s investigation found that between August 2020 and September 2023, seven couples paid Mr Connell a total of over $27,000 for wedding videos that they never received.

They’ve also not received refunds for these services.

In one instance Mr Connell accepted over $4000 from a Pimpama groom and captured footage of the wedding in May 2022.

More than a year later he later emailed the client to tell him the raw footage had been deleted and offered a refund, however that refund was never paid.

The court also heard how a representative of Mr Connell attended another consumer’s wedding in 2022 and captured footage of the event.

When the bride emailed Mr Connell two months later to inquire when her video would be available, she received a generic response saying that they were busy and would be in touch.

In October 2023 Mr Connell was declared a bankrupt with a total of 91 creditors and a total detriment of more than $303,900.

While the newlyweds won’t be compensated through the courts, they may be able to obtain a partial refund as part of the bankruptcy process

OFT worked with Mr Connell to have the raw footage returned to the newlyweds.

The court heard a server failure wiped most of the recordings, however three were spared.

Mr Connell was ordered by Magistrate Dominic Brunello to deliver the footage of these three weddings to the brides and grooms by January 6.

If Connell doesn’t supply the footage as ordered then OFT plan to take Mr Connell back to court.

Consumers that haven’t received the goods or services they have paid for should approach the trader in the first instance. If this is unsuccessful, they can lodge a complaint with OFT at http://www.qld.gov.au/fairtrading

Quotes attributed to Commissioner for Fair Trading Victoria Thomson:

“It’s unacceptable for traders to take people’s money with no intention of delivering the service.

“Today the Office of Fair Trading held James McDonald Connell to account for his actions which had devastating consequences for the many newlyweds whose special days have been tarnished.

“These consumers did all the right things – seeking recommendations from people they knew and reading online reviews.

“There’s only one opportunity to capture a wedding day and these consumers have lost that moment in time they will never get back.

“We’ll continue to stand up for Queenslanders who aren’t getting what they paid for.”

Quotes attributed to newlywed Corinne Wong:

“Getting video of the wedding was pretty important so we made that a priority with the budgeting.

“Leading up ceremony all the communication seemed pretty normal. We had a couple of meetings to discuss how the day was going to run.

“It wasn’t until we came across a Facebook group that was created because of issues with this videographer that we realised anything was wrong.

“The day was such a blur, so full of excitement and adrenalin. You don’t remember clearly all the details and the speeches.

“I really wanted to have that footage to remember and look back on.

“It’s pretty devastating because that’s a loss of a memory that can’t be recreated.

“For me I didn’t grow up with my dad, so I was very close to my grandfather. That relationship was really special.

“My grandfather passed away four months after the wedding and that really was the last occasion where we were all together, so the footage meant a lot.

“I keep thinking back to how we could have researched more, but I don’t know what more I could have done.

“We did our research beforehand and went on the videographer’s website and Instagram, and went through a reputable photographer who had worked with him in the past and even still we were blindsided.”

Quotes attributed to newlywed Anthony Wong:

“After the ceremony it was pretty much radio silence from him. I sent a few emails and tried to call as well. After a while we gave up on getting the wedding video, but he said he’d send us the raw footage.

“He sent us a dropbox that had nothing uploaded and we never received the hard drive he promised to send.

“Eventually his Instagram and website disappeared and that was when we started to panic.

“That’s when things came to light.

“This isn’t something that we can really fix or remedy.

“If a contractor doing your house and the contractor falls through, you can still get another contractor to complete your house.

“But this is something that is once in a lifetime, and it is not something we can get back.”

-ENDS-