Wedding RIP-OFF: Gardaí and Interpol investigate planner as Irish pair lose €26k and 36 other couples affected

Published: 18:02, 30 May 2026 | Updated: 18:10, 30 May 2026 Gardai and Interpol are investigating the Tenerife wedding planner accused of ripping off dozens of couples for hundreds of thousands of euro, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal. The news comes just days after the Mail revealed an Irish couple lost €26,000 when British wedding planner Claire Lopez announced her business was insolvent. A conservative estimate of money owed to nearly 40 couples who had paid towards their big day is €350,000, sources said. Sorcha McManigan and fiancé Alan Kent lost €26,000 when their wedding planner went broke Sorcha McManigan and her fiancé Alan Kent, both 31, had been planning their perfect day for over two years and flew, on three occasions, to look at venues in the Canary Islands.  The couple contracted Ms Lopez, who runs the company Weddings In Tenerife, and had paid more than two-thirds of the €37,000 bill for their celebrations when they got an email last Friday saying the company was insolvent. All of Ms Lopez’s social media accounts have since been deleted, as well as her official website.  The Mail also understands that Ms Lopez is already on the radar of international policing agency Interpol through contacts made by other police forces around the world regarding her alleged behaviour. Now, Ms McManigan is spearheading an ever-growing group of dozens of couples who have been left out of pocket by the planner in a bid to recoup the cash they had paid her.  She told the Mail yesterday: ‘The gardaí and [the Department of] Foreign Affairs have been so good to us, bringing us through the next steps. We felt so alone at the start but they’ve been absolutely great. ‘We’re getting everything together for them and for international police. The people affected are from everywhere. ‘We have someone in every part of the world. Like, there’s a couple in Germany, one American, and then Irish and people from the UK. This is global. ‘We know of one bride who had sent over €925 worth of items in two suitcases for her wedding. She has pleaded with her [Lopez] to just drop them off somewhere but she hasn’t got any response from her.’ Gardaí will now seek Interpol’s help as part of the investigation into Ms Lopez. Complaints regarding the planner go back as far as 2022. From the Garda perspective, officers here can contact the Canarian police force directly as well as using Interpol channels to exchange intelligence. Speaking to the Mail yesterday, Ms McManigan said the number of people who had come forward since she shared her story has been ‘overwhelming’. She said she did not want to identify other couples who were keen to maintain their privacy but added that there is an ever-increasing number of people contacting her regarding Ms Lopez. She said: ‘We’re on about 36 couples out there but we’re looking for more people to come forward. ‘We’re slowly climbing up [with the numbers] and we are reaching out to those affected. There are also people got married previously as well and had used her. ‘People are very careful about talking about financial loss, especially in Ireland, but we want them to come forward and not to be embarrassed about it.’ She continued: ‘We did all our homework and still got burned. We’re on a mission now to get the word out and spread it far and wide and tell people to get in touch with us on social media. ‘We’re trying to find more people that have been affected because there’s an amazing group that we’ve put together to share resources and knowledge, just to try and make some sense of this.’ Ms McManigan said Tenerife police told two couples the issue is a civil matter. Some are attempting to pool money together after being quoted thousands of euro from lawyers to take the case. Ms McManigan, who is a civil servant, said she plans on marrying in Tenerife this September. She added: ‘I can’t cancel the wedding, everyone’s got flights booked and accommodation booked and I don’t want people to lose money. ‘We’ve people flying in from the US, France and Ireland.’ Spain’s business registry shows that Weddings In Tenerife was incorporated in February 2023 and Claire Lopez is not the planner’s legal name. Two directors are listed: Claire Louise Mary Oxenham and Lars Jensen, a Danish ex-biker who Ms McManigan says she was told was her wedding planner’s husband. While couples who paid tens of thousands of euro had been told over email last week that the company would be filing for insolvency ‘as soon as our lawyer has prepared the necessary documents’, the business registry shows that as of yesterday evening the company was still active.  The lack of communication has left Ms McManigan and Mr Kent ‘incredibly suspicious’ that they were defrauded rather than the company having gone bust, she said. ‘For the last two years she hasn’t paid any vendors, so we have no food, no DJ, no furniture, where did that money go?’ she asked. A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said it ‘is aware of this case and has provided advice and assistance’. Gardaí and Interpol were contacted for comment. Richard Findlay and Samantha Kelly-Findlay planned a traditional Spanish wedding 'She took us to a venue above a sex shop. It was a total nightmare' A WOMAN who hired Claire Lopez as her wedding planner said she was ‘gutted’ when she realised she was being taken for a ride. Samantha Kelly-Findlay said Ms Lopez had come so highly recommended that she had no issues choosing her for the job. But over a series of months and a disastrous meet-up with the planner in Tenerife, she said she was forced to cut ties with her and was ‘lucky’ to be only stung for £500 (€575). Ms Kelly-Findlay, from Newcastle in England, told the Irish Daily Mail she wanted a small, rustic Spanish wedding that was traditional and family-friendly. ‘Claire came highly recommended online so we decided to book her as our wedding planner,’ she said. ‘She told us she needed a £1,000 (€1,150) planner fee upfront to start setting up meetings with the vendors.’ The couple travelled to Tenerife to meet Ms Lopez and look at venues, in September 2022. ‘She took us to a place on Veronica’s Strip [tourist area], another one above a sex shop and one in a party venue with topless sunbathers just next to where we’d get married,’ she said. ‘It was a total nightmare. ‘I’m sure for someone wanting a party atmosphere, these venues would be lovely, but they were not venues you’d describe as small, rustic, intimate or family-friendly. We had children coming and elderly family members and had been very clear we wanted somewhere private and quite simple. When the couple eventually found a perfect venue, they were told it could only be booked six months in advance despite them being clear they needed a year. Aside from being up-sold things they said they did not want, the couple later found out Ms Lopez withheld key information about their wedding, which later meant they did not get married abroad – something Samantha had dreamed about since she was a little girl. ‘We did ultimately find a venue with an awful lot of effort but once we got home, we were told the venue could only be booked six months in advance,’ she said, adding that the planner had ignored their requirements, including that they ‘needed a year’s notice’. She said: ‘I was gutted the venue would only accommodate six months’ booking and reached out to see if they would give us a year. They agreed this was possible and we were back on.’ The couple told Ms Lopez the venue would give them a year’s notice and they would be back in touch in January, 2023. ‘We then had no contact from Claire until February,’ said Ms Kelly-Findlay, who wasn’t concerned as she believed all was in order. However, all trust dissolved when the couple spoke to the venue and found out it had contacted Ms Lopez in October to say it couldn’t take the booking. ‘She had that information for four months before she finally admitted it to us,’ said Ms Kelly-Findlay. ‘For four months she knew our wedding was off but kept sending us crazy budgets that we never paid, and pressuring us to get friends and family to book their flights... It was madness.’ Samantha said she is heartbroken to see Ms Lopez continue working in this fashion and knows other people have had awful situations far worse than hers. Samantha and Richard eventually had to settle for a 'Spanish-themed' wedding in England ‘We finally got married in March 2025 in a Spanish-themed wedding in Durham because we just didn’t feel comfortable going abroad to get married, despite it being my childhood dream,’ she said. ‘My heart breaks for the brides now facing all this. Hopefully this helps others trust their gut and makes her name public so she can never do this again.’ Efforts were made to contact Ms Lopez for comment. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.