A teenager who extorted a man out of thousands of pounds has been spared an immediate prison sentence.
Courtney-Jade Mildenhall was 17 when she blackmailed the man to whom she had sent explicit images of herself, claiming that the police had launched an investigation into him - but that she had the power to stop the probe.
No such investigation existed; it was a story made up by Mildenhall, now 21, in order to scam her victim out of thousands.
Over five months in 2019, she made repeated demands for money, claiming she needed the cash in order to pay off loans, buy designer clothes and get a ‘hair transplant’ London. She sent him manipulative messages, including one that read: “You need to send as much as you can and I’ll forget about the case.”
READ MORE: Blackmailer earned £14k in five months
In total, the victim handed over £14,375. The man - in his early 20s - had considered taking his own life as a result of the blackmail, the court heard.
Mildenhall, 21, of Diamond Drive, Didcot, pleaded guilty last year to blackmail, entering a basis of plea that she did not know her victim had suffered from mental health difficulties.
Sentencing was deferred by Judge Maria Lamb, who ordered she saved up money to compensate her victim.
Last year, the judge said: “You exploited a man who regarded you as a friend. He thought you were 18 years of age or more and you and he had a financial arrangement whereby he would pay for material of you involved in sexual activity.
“But once he knew how told you in fact were – 17 years of age – he straight away broke off the association between you.
“But in July of 2019 you contacted him once again and you told a barefaced lie in order to extract money from him – a complete and utter fiction that there was a police investigation and thereafter you went [on] to fleece him for all you could make from him.”
When Mildenhall returned to court on Friday (May 12), Judge Lamb kept her side of the bargain and suspended the two year prison sentence for two years.
As part of the suspended sentence order, the young mum must do 75 hours of unpaid work, complete up to 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days with the probation service and pay £6,100 in compensation.
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