A former Suffolk farmer who went on the run for seven months after being convicted of swindling a string of creditors out of more than £500,000 by buying goods and services he knew he couldn’t pay for has been jailed for five years.

Sentencing 36-year-old Wayne Parker, Judge Nicola Talbot-Hadley said he had spun a “web of deceit” over a period of two years and had made empty promises to pay creditors based on “fiction and lies”.

She said his business was reckless from the start and it was obvious he had no financial wherewithal and had taken on too much with no capital or savings to fall back on.

Parker, formerly of Mildenhall, now of Hazel Grove, Feltham, denied participating in a fraudulent business with intent to defraud creditors by incurring debts between February 2018 and May 2020 but was convicted after a three week trial last autumn.

The court heard that in October last year he had admitted 19 animal welfare offences and in addition to being jailed he was given an indefinite ban from owning or keeping animals.

Judge Talbot-Hadley said Parker would have to wait at least five years before he could apply for the ban to be lifted.

He also admitted failing to surrender to his bail and breaching a 12 week prison sentence suspended for 18 months imposed in February 2020 for animal welfare offences.

The court heard thst Parker failed to attend his sentencing hearing at Ipswich Crown Court in February and was at large until he was arrested at a service station and remanded in custody earlier this month.

During his trial, the court heard that Parker had written cheques for thousands of pounds that bounced on accounts which only contained a few pennies or which were empty

Nadia Silver, prosecuting for Suffolk Trading Standards, claimed that Parker’s business had been fraudulent from the time it was set up in 2018 to his departure from Suffolk in early 2020.

She said he had bought goods on credit and on the goodwill of suppliers and assured them he was a person of good standing who would pay what he owed.

“The prosecution says that when he incurred debts to the trades people who supplied him in good faith he was acting dishonestly and knew that he couldn’t pay his debts and had no intention of paying them and told lies to these people in order to extend credit to him,” said Miss Silver.

She said that over a period of two and a half years Parker’s offending had resulted in losses of “hundreds of thousands of pounds” to creditors.

She said that Parker had an “established pattern” in the way he conducted the fraud and would frequently make an initial cash payment and then issue cheques that bounced or he would tell the bank to stop the cheques.

When Parker was chased for payment he assured creditors that full payment would be made and would use delaying tactics by saying the money was on its way or blame a problem with a new bank account.

He would also claim his bank account had been hacked or that the debt had already been paid.

“He sometimes provided screenshots of purported confirmation of payments but these were lies,” said Miss Silver.

She claimed that Parker had bought livestock including sheep and cattle and had failed to make payments for them.

He had then sold them without the suppliers knowledge while they were still the legal owners of them.

On one occasion he purchased a Range Rover on finance and had then issued cheques which bounced.

When he was asked to return the vehicle he made excuses and kept hold of it as long as he could, said Miss Silver.

After Parker was declared bankrupt he had continued to engage the services of vets and suppliers and didn’t tell them as he was obliged to that he was bankrupt, she said.

The court heard that Parker had worked for other people before starting his own business.

“It was designed to be successful with some element of fantasy about how he would be able to repay the debts he was incurring," said William Pope, for Parker. 

“He thought he knew enough about farming to go it alone and clearly he didn’t.”

"He was in denial about his debts and in denial about having to attend court.”

Graham Crisp, head of Suffolk Trading Standards, said: "Today’s sentencing is a fantastic outcome for Suffolk Trading Standards and our counterparts in Cambridgeshire that will see justice served to one of East Anglia’s most brazen criminals.

"Our officers have worked tirelessly to pursue this conviction, knowing the impact of Parker’s actions on the farming community, with him giving a bad name to farmers in genuine financial distress.

"His web of lies and deceit eventually caught up with him, and I hope this sends a clear message to anyone tempted to use fraud to fund a lifestyle beyond their means that this crime is unacceptable in Suffolk."