Crooked vet’s £60k bill for horse fraud
A VET who was jailed for drugging sick and injured horses so they could be sold as healthy has been ordered to pay £59,050.
David Smith, 68, was convicted of doctoring the animals to pretend they were in good condition.
Despite having assets of £491,000, he said the order to pay was a “robbery”.
After a hearing at Maidstone crown court, in Kent, Smith said: “It is a total miscarriage of justice.”
But judge Martin Joy told him: “You supplied drugs for horses you knew would be sold fraudulently.
“You made it possible for horses to be sold that should not have been.”
Smith, of Finglesham, Kent, Aniela Jurecka and Charlotte Johnson were jailed for 30 months each for the scam in 2016.