A HORSE breeder and his partner were taken for a ride when their horses were sold off by financial advisors, a court was told yesterday.

Liquidators sold the horses for £10,207 when their true worth was closer to £100,000, it was claimed.

Lawyers for Walter Henry Davison, and partner Jacqueline Salt, the owners of Vendrage Ltd, turned detective and found that a yearling was later sold for £30,000 in Ireland and two others went for almost £10,000.

Jeremy Barnett, defending Davison on a charge of managing Vendrage Ltd while still an undischarged bankrupt, said: "This company really should not have been wound up, and the defendant, his partner and their creditors, were the victims of bad advice at best, and at worst, dishonest advice.

"There would have been enough money to discharge liabilities to the creditors, and for the defendant and his partner to discharge their loans."

Vendrage Ltd had stables at Dalton, near Thirsk, and later at Neasham, near Darlington, before it hit financial difficulties in late 1999.

The company approached Chard Wallis, of Purley Way, Croydon, who advised that it be put into full liquidation, said Christopher Batty, prosecuting for the Department of Trade and Industry.

Mr Barnett told Teesside Crown Court: "Unfortunately, it is often these insolvency advisors who clean out companies."

Davison was twice declared bankrupt, once in June 1990 and then again in March 1994.

Davison, now a dairy herd manager, of Bridgefield House, Brassey Green, Tarporley, Cheshire, was given a four month jail sentence suspended for two years after he pleaded guilty to the 1998 to 99 bankruptcy offence.

He was also ordered to pay £1,000 prosecution costs and disqualified as a director or manager of a company for six years.