A dancer who conned dozens of Northamptonshire children and teenagers into thinking they would be part of the Olympics closing ceremony has lost an appeal against his prison sentence.
Stephen Moonesamy, aged 36, of Lowlands Close, Rectory Farm, was jailed for two years at Northampton Crown Court last July after admitting eight counts of fraud.
Today, three senior judges in London said the sentence was fully deserved for such serious offences and dismissed the former ballet dancer’s bid for a reduction in his jail time.
The Court of Appeal heard Moonesamy approached dance schools for help and advertised his fictitious part in last summer’s event on radio.
Youngsters and their families paid for them to take part and the children were said to be excited about the prospect of performing in front of millions.
However, his fraud unravelled when some of the people involved contacted the Olympics Organising Committee, Locog, and were told Moonesamy had no part in the ceremony.
At the crown court last year, Moonesamy’s lawyers said he had hoped that his endeavour would actually be used in the closing ceremony.
Today, he appealed against the length of his sentence, on the basis that the term was “manifestly excessive”, particularly because he had never been in prison before.
But Judge David Clarke QC, sitting today with Lord Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Saunders, rejected the complaints.
He said: “The effect on these children and their families is described as disappointment, but that is a serious understatement.
“In our judgment, this was a proper sentence and the appeal is, accordingly, dismissed.”
his callous and deceitful lies.”
At his trial last year, Moonesamy admitted he charged three dance schools - The Sinead Loughnane Academy in Northampton, The Dance Factory in Kettering and the Kilburn Dance School in Wellingborough - fees of £625 claiming he was authorised to select and recruit dancers for the closing ceremony.
Sinead Loughnane, of The Sinead Loughnane Dance Academy, said at the time that her students had been left “absolutely devastated.”
The schools were not the only parties targeted by the elaborate fraud. Earl Spencer even consented to a request by RWB to write a letter of congratulations to the dancers.
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