Woman spared jail over pills fraud

A serial bigamist who fooled a doctor into giving her sleeping pills by dressing as a man was spared a jail sentence today.

Emily Horne, 33, cropped her hair and wore a baggy football shirt and trousers to fool a doctor into believing she was her then partner Craig Hadwin.

At a previous hearing, Horne, of Tucker Street, Wells, Somerset, admitted two charges of fraud by false representation and asked for a further three similar offences to be taken into account.

Horne was listed before Taunton Crown Court as Max Accastes Quiberberon - the name she had adopted by deed poll.

The former glamour model has appeared in court numerous times over her tangled love life.

Horne, who has been diagnosed with a personality disorder, made world headlines with her bigamist lifestyle, appeared in adult movies and was also the subject of a Channel 4 documentary.

Record Jonathan Barnes told Horne that he was not going to send her to prison despite being in breach of a suspended sentence imposed in Manchester in 2009 when she had admitted bigamy.

"You have come terribly, terribly close to be sent to prison. This will be the last chance," the judge told her.

"If you come back before the courts for any further offences of this kind - and I am talking about the obtaining of prescription drugs from the NHS by deception - I do not have the slightest doubt that the judge dealing with you will send you to immediate custody."

The judge imposed a 12-month community order with supervision and a 28-day electronically tagged curfew from 7pm to 7am.

PA