Love Island winner freed on bail as he appeals jail sentence for having dangerously out of control dog
29 January 2025, 11:51 | Updated: 29 January 2025, 17:21
A Love Island winner has been released on bail pending appeal after being sentenced over his dangerously out of control dog
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Jack Fincham, 32, was sentenced to six weeks behind bars on Wednesday after his dog, named Elvis, attacked a man.
Fincham pleaded guilty to the charge at Southend-on-Sea Magistrates’ Court.
His lawyer later confirmed that he had been released on bail pending appeal, effective immediately, following his sentencing.
The Love Island star's black Cane Corso bit runner Robert Sudell in Swanley, Kent, in September 2022, prosecutor Erin Peck said.
She said that Mr Sudell had accepted an apology and Fincham was going to be cautioned and engage with a responsible dog ownership course.
She said conditions were made including that his dog must be muzzled, but in June last year there was a second incident in Grays in Essex when his dog was out of control and he was later charged.
No injuries were reported following the second incident.
The 32-year-old, who won Love Island in 2018, gave a thumbs up as he was led to the cells at Southend Magistrates' Court as a woman in the public gallery wept.
Presiding magistrate Anne Wade, sentencing, said that Fincham was subject to a suspended sentence order at the time of the incident in Swanley in Kent.
The order, for an unrelated driving matter, was of 12 weeks custody suspended for 18 months.
Ms Wade said this order would be activated in part, adding that "we find no reason not to do so".
"The dog was in a public place not abiding by the conditions to be muzzled and kept on a lead," she said.
Fincham was ordered to pay £3,680 in total, including a £2,000 contribution to kennelling costs, a fine of £961 and £200 compensation to Mr Sudell.
Richard Cooper, for Fincham, said the defendant "has no savings".
Ms Wade said Fincham could pay in instalments, initially at £400 per month.
She made an order that the dog must be muzzled in public places, be kept on a lead and not be left alone with anyone under the age of 16.
