A conman who tricked a top racehorse trader into spending millions on thoroughbreds today had his jail term slashed from three to two years by appeal judges.

Among 29-year-old Michael Baker's victims was Charlie Gordon-Watson, a bloodstock agent whose clients have included Sir Alex Ferguson and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Baker, of Pilgrims Way, Hollingbourne, Kent, former landlord of the White Horse Inn, Sandway, Maidstone, was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court last September after admitting fraudulent trading, obtaining services by deception and fraud by false representation.

But on Thursday, three senior judges at the Court of Appeal said a lesser term should be substituted because of the effect of his imprisonment on his sister, who suffers from cerebral palsy.