Lighthouse couple's sentences cut

Mrs Ford-Sagers "fell in love with a beautiful island", her lawyer said

A couple jailed for stealing £100,000 through a bogus charity to fund their dream of owning a remote lighthouse have had their sentences cut.

Brenda and Robert Ford-Sagers, both in their 60s, were jailed for three years at Southampton Crown Court after admitting five theft and fraud charges.

On Tuesday they had their sentences cut to two years by the Court of Appeal.

It ruled that the couple had not been given enough credit for their guilty pleas during the trial in April.

It was a deliberate fraud executed with considerable attention to detail Mr Justice Butterfield

Mrs and Mrs Ford-Sagers, who live at Kyles School House, Isle of Harris, Scotland, but who gave a bail address of Denmead in Hampshire, had dreamed of renovating the derelict lighthouse on the remote Hebridean island of Scalpay since they bought it in 1984.

Appeal judge Mr Justice Butterfield said: "They saw the restoration of these romantic buildings as a dream to be fulfilled and it was in striving to fulfil their dream that they became enmeshed in deceitful and extensive dishonesty."

The couple bought their remote island getaway in 1984

By the mid-1990s the cost of maintaining their retreat had become so great that they fell behind on mortgage repayments.

In 1996, threatened with eviction, Mrs Ford-Sagers set up an "entirely bogus" charitable trust, the Friends of Eilean Glas, using false names and forging her husband's signature.

She then asked her husband, a financial advisor, to siphon off clients' money into the fake trust.

"It was a deliberate fraud executed with considerable attention to detail," Mr Justice Butterfield said.

He also added that, had the judge's attention been drawn to guideline sentences passed in previous cases, he would have imposed lesser jail terms.

"It is important that pleas of guilty in complex financial fraud cases are properly recognised by an appropriate discount," the appeal judge said.