A FRAUDSTER has admitted tricking people into giving her lame horses which she would then sell onto unsuspecting animal dealers.

Brooke Lee, 24, was handed a nine-month suspended prison sentence, was ordered to carry out 220 hours unpaid work and pay £750 costs when she appeared before York Crown Court last Friday.

She had previously pleaded guilty to two offences of fraud and one of trading without professional diligence.

City of York Council launched a probe after receiving complaints about Lee, of Roebuck Lane, Otley, in 2010.

Lee sold a horse known as The Apprentice for £1,837.50 at a local livestock market as “good to do in every way” – despite knowing the horse was lame.

Officers contacted the previous owners who said they had given the horse to Lee only five days earlier on the understanding that Lee would give the horse a permanent home and that he would be a companion for her filly.

Further investigations showed Lee – using different aliases – had tricked a further four horse owners into letting her take their horse believing it would be given a permanent home.

In one case the horse was taken to Melton Mowbray a few days later were it was sold for £480 and slaughtered.