Fine for dealer who sold horse with severe laminitis
A Cheshire horse trader has been fined for selling a horse unfit to be ridden.
The case against Samantha Atkins of Broughton was brought by Pembrokeshire County Council under the Trades Descriptions Act 1968.
She pleaded guilty to selling a falsely-described horse.
Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday (20 April) how in January 2008 the horse was advertised online as a “safe, sensible, perfect horse” with no vices or faults.
A buyer tried the horse and bought it for £2,500 without having it vetted. On delivery the horse was chronically lame.
A vet found the horse to have long-standing and incurable chronic laminitis and it was put to sleep.
Ms Atkins was ordered to pay fines, costs and compensation amounting to £4,115.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.