Show jumpers fined for theft of horses

TWO show jumpers were fined pounds 2,000 each yesterday after magistrates were told of the night they went horse-rustling.

Daniella Mattocks, 23, and her boyfriend, Darren Newton, 21, stole three horses worth a total of pounds 4,400.

They were fined the maximum penalty after pleading guilty at Hertford Magistrates' Court to theft.

Melanie Underwood, for the prosecution, said Mattocks, a professional show jumper, ran stables at her parents' home in Edgewarebury Lane, Borehamwood, north-west London.

She said Newton, who was among the top 300 show jumpers in the country, lived on his parents' farm in Andrew Lane, Goffs Oak, Hertfordshire, where they ran a stabling business.

On the evening of 28 April this year Mattocks drove a horse transporter into Hertfordshire. Shortly before midnight, she and Newton stopped in a lane near Amwellbury Farm, Ware, close to a field where horses were grazing. They loaded three horses into the transporter.

Mattocks then drove into Bedfordshire where the animals were sold for pounds 1,700 the next day.

The three horses were sold on again in May but the first buyer found out they had been stolen and within days police had arrested the two.

Newton told police it had been his girlfriend's idea to steal the horses and that he had reluctantly agreed to help.

David Aumayer, Newton's solicitor, said it was possible that the British Showjumping Association would impose a ban on his client.