Juliana Posman, a 43-year-old businesswoman, has avoided imprisonment despite having a secret gambling addiction that led to her squandering over £3.5 million.
She incurred substantial debts while gambling on the German DAX stock market index, and when her creditors pursued her, she chose to lie about her debts to evade bankruptcy. She was found guilty of making a false representation but was spared a prison sentence on Friday.
This was not the first time that Posman had deceived someone into giving her large sums of money to finance her gambling addiction.
In 2018, her ex-husband Christopher Forte, 41, revealed how he repeatedly gave in to her demands for cash, unaware of the £2.5 million she had allegedly borrowed from two London businessmen.
Posman’s addiction to gambling had led her to spread-bet on the movements of the German stock exchange.
However, she incurred significant losses, accumulating considerable debts to CMC Spread Bet, the spread-betting broker.
When she split from her husband, she was faced with bankruptcy but chose to mislead her creditors by not disclosing her debt of £91,746.93 with CMC Spread Bet and continued to place bets with another firm.
Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex heard that instead of declaring her debt, she attempted to gamble her way out of it.
