Former owner jailed for seven years for fraud
A FORMER racehorse owner who spent £650,000 on bloodstock and £926,000 on betting was jailed for seven years at Teesside Crown Court on Thursday for his part in a £16 million fraud.
Michael Smallman,45, of Northallerton, North Yorkshire, had been convicted after a four month trial of misappropriating the money paid into his National Distance Learning College accounts from students' fees and government grants. His wife, Angela, was jailed for 15 months for money-laundering offences.
Smallman was an owner with Neville Bycroft, Peter Beaumont and Tim Etherington before renting a yard in Malton, where he employed Allan Dickman as his full-time trainer and launched Mike Smallman Racing, which had more than 20 horses. Smallman had seven winners between January 2000 and August 2001.
peterbeaumont
During the trial, the jury was told that Smallman bet around £926,000 on horses between 1999 and 2006, including £331,854 over a five-month period in 2001, and indulged his passion by spending £650,000 on bloodstock in three years.
The prosecution had stated that his college was receiving £1.8m every month during 2001. From the government, it gained as much as £1.1m in one month, and just under £6m from 2000 to 2001, but, in November 2001, it collapsed and the jury was told:"Sixteen million pounds had simply gone. The students were left high and dry- no course, no qualification and out of pocket."
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