John Thornhill, chairman of the Magistrates Association, has denied claims by the Prison Governors Association (PGA) that lay magistrates were caught up in a “feeding frenzy†of disproportionate sentencing in the wake of the riots.
A fraudulent will writer has been jailed for 14 months. Walter Ventriglia, who pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading at Reading Crown Court, received money from around 100 to 130 clients.
