A dealer who “told lies after lies” and made repeated excuses as she defrauded buyers and sold “completely inappropriate horses to susceptible purchasers” has avoided jail.
Emma Bamber, 42, was sentenced on 10 April at Antrim Crown Court, for seven charges of fraud by false representation and one of engaging in misleading commercial practice. She had initially denied all charges against her, but admitted these eight last autumn, relating to eight victims over a number of months in 2018.
Judge Fiona Bagnall said Bamber, of Bridge Street, Garstang, “accepts she was economical with the truth” and apologised for distress caused. She noted that Bamber “feels aggrieved more senior individuals in the operation weren’t charged”, but said she knew she was misleading clients, on horses who were not as described and in some cases did not arrive with the buyers.
“If the defendant played a vital role in this business, as I believe she did, she would have been fully aware of what was going on, which illustrates her capacity for extremely deviant and manipulative behaviours,” she said.
Ms Bagnall went through the facts relating to the horses; she said numerous complaints were made against Bamber, of Glenedra Sport Horses in Co Londonderry, from people “across the British Isles”.
One was a horse described as an Irish Sport Horse with an “excellent and calm temperament”, sold in July 2018 to a man for his daughter, for £14,000. Bamber was “made well aware of the needs of his daughter”, but when they took it home, they found it was a thoroughbred and “not suitable for a novice rider”. It then went lame and scans showed a “substantial injury to its tendon, which was of some age and had not been disclosed”.
Another victim paid £5,500 for a “grand prix showjumping horse”, which arrived with a large splint and an incorrect passport, and a third, a novice rider, paid £1,525 for a horse who never arrived.
Excuses
Other victims also paid for horses who never arrived; Ms Bagnall detailed Bamber’s excuses for the non-arrivals including saying her baby was ill in hospital, and that her old horse had died from colic.
“She was interviewed on various occasions and during each interview, made no comment to all questions,” Ms Bagnall said.
Ms Bagnall considered the aggravating factors were the scale of the operation, in time, geographical spread and number of victims, but on the mitigating side was the length of time since they had occurred, during which no further offences had been reported. She said Bamber had been the victim of abuse in childhood, and that she was “coping with difficult family circumstances” at the time of the offences.
“I do note the submissions this morning, that she fully accepts her role in these offences and has provided a genuine apology,” Ms Bagnall said.
“When I consider the accounts of the transactions… I consider she has been trying to minimise her involvement and distance herself from the offences as best she can. But it is clear she told lies after lies to clients, to sell what were completely inappropriate horses to susceptible purchasers.”
Ms Bagnall considered Bamber’s culpability high, and although the horses were “of relatively low value”, the impact on the victims was more than financial; some were bought for novices and “clearly inappropriate” for this.
“It’s fortunate no one has been badly hurt through the actions of the defendant,” she said.
Ms Bagnall gave Bamber an 18-month prison sentence but suspended it for two years; she cited again the time since the offences and the delay in resolution of the case. She said Bamber had “had the matter hanging over her for six years”.
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