Lubenham Couple Sentenced After Conning Collectors

A couple from Lubenham have been given suspended jail sentences for conning collectors into thinking they were buying rare pottery.

Craig and Aimee Bailey defrauded them out of £40,000 after buying cheap products and making them appear like Cornishware pots, selling them on at premium prices.

The scam was uncovered when collectors got suspicious and alerted Leicestershire Trading Standards, who mounted a major investigation in 2017.

Aimee Bailey, 46, and Craig Bailey, 53, both pleaded guilty to fraud when they appeared at Leicester Crown Court this week.

The judge sentenced them each to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and imposed a community punishment order which means both need to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work in the community.

They were also ordered to pay compensation and costs totalling over £80,000.

Louise Boyall from Leicestershire Trading Standards was involved with the investigation:

One of the altered jars

The couple bought common, lower-priced pots, altered the wording on them and then sold them as rarer pots.

In one case, Craig Bailey bought a jar marked ‘sago’ from eBay for £29.99. The label on the jar was altered to the much rarer ‘walnuts’ and then sold by Aimee Bailey for £400.

Most of the sales were conducted through a Facebook group for collectors of Cornishware, whose members were told by Aimee and Craig Bailey that they had managed to acquire so many rare pots through having bought the entire collection from a reclusive collector in Yorkshire.

The pots were all sent for expert analysis, which showed that the pots sold by the Baileys had been tampered with.

In all, it was discovered that the Baileys had acquired a total of £40,000 from seven victims for items which were worth considerably less.

In mitigation, the court heard that Craig Bailey had no previous convictions, and that Aimee Bailey is of good character and has a steady income.

The judge also granted a forfeiture order for the pottery in the possession of Leicestershire Trading Standards, including items seized from the home of the Baileys and the items sold to the victims.