A glamorous businesswoman who squandered more than £3.5m after developing a secret gambling addiction has been spared prison.

Juliana ‘Leah’ Posman, 43, racked up huge debts while gambling on movements on the German DAX exchange.

But when she was pursued by her creditors she decided to lie about her debts in a bid to escape bankruptcy.

On Friday she escaped a prison sentence after being found guilty of making a false representation.

It is not the first time Posman, who worked for an IT company, has duped someone into handing over large sums of cash to feed her gambling addiction.

Juliana ‘Leah’ Posman (pictured) racked up huge debts while gambling on movements on the German DAX exchange

Her husband Christopher Forte (pictured) had no idea she borrowed £2.5 million from two affluent businessmen in London

Mr Forte received a letter from the men saying they had lent Miss Posman £2.5million and that they had been told he would guarantee the loans

In 2018 her then husband Christopher Forte, 41, told how he repeatedly gave into the demands for cash from his Indonesian born wife.

Despite being married to a British citizen, she told her husband she needed large sums of money to show she had assets of £5million in order to get a visa.

Unbeknown to him she had also allegedly borrowed £2.5 million from two affluent businessmen in London.

Instead of saving the money Posman, 43, had become ‘addicted’ to gambling and was spread betting on the movements on the German stock exchange.

But she lost huge amounts, racking up large debts to CMC Spread Bet and when she split from her husband she faced bankruptcy.

Lewes Crown Court heard that instead of declaring her debt she ‘tried to gamble her way of it’.

She misled her creditors by failing to declare a debt of £91,746.93 with CMC Spread Bet and then continued to bet with another firm.

The couple married in a £20,000 civil ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel in London in 2014

Miss Posman told her husband she needed large sums of money to show she had assets of £5million in order to get a visa

Posman had become ‘addicted’ to gambling and was spread betting on the movements on the German stock exchange

Andrew Herd, prosecuting, told the court: ‘We would say this was a calculated omission and the decision not to include the information about the debt, even in the face of advice to make a full disclosure, was motivated by the financial and practical benefits of avoiding bankruptcy.’

At Lewes Crown Court a jury unanimously found her guilty of a single charge of making a false representation.

Judge Stephen Mooney sentenced the businesswoman to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

An Insolvency Service spokesperson said: ‘Juliana Posman sought to flagrantly abuse the bankruptcy process and leave creditors out of pocket by taking out the Individual Voluntary Arrangement without disclosing the significant debt from her gambling account.

‘This is a serious offence and her conviction should serve as a warning to anyone else that trying to escape debts in this way is wholly unacceptable.’

Posman – who moved to the UK when she was 20 – met her husband, a former Lancing College pupil, in 2010 when they were both working for an IT firm in Egham, Surrey.

Mr Forte – a distant relation to the Forte hotel family – and Miss Posman married in a £20,000 civil ceremony at the Grosvenor Hotel in London in 2014.

A second wedding followed a few months later for around 100 of her Chinese-Indonesian family in Indonesia, followed by a luxury honeymoon in Bali.

Soon afterwards, though, the problems began when she started to ask him for large sums of money.

Despite earning £90,000 a year working at a credit and law firm, Posman said she needed to build up a large sum in her bank account to show she had assets of her own.

However her story unravelled in 2016 when Mr Forte received a letter from Warren Roiter, who told him that he and his business partner Isaac Kaye had lent Miss Posman £2.5million.

They claimed they had been told Mr Forte would guarantee the loans, but he knew nothing about them.

Miss Posman was in Indonesia at the time but when she returned to their smart marital flat in Balham, south London, she confessed.

She claimed she had given £750,000 to her brother, £250,000 to her parents and lost several million spread betting.

Mr Forte claims he lent his wife £45,000, while his retired parents handed their daughter-in-law £131,000.

The couple split up and divorced in 2017 with Posman pledging to pay back almost £170,000

Last week, Posman escaped an immediate prison sentence after being found guilty of making a false representation

The couple split up and divorced in 2017 with Posman pledging to pay back almost £170,000 at a rate of £1,700 a month.

In a bid to avoid bankruptcy she entered into an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) with her creditors.

But she failed to declare a huge £90,000 debt she had racked up with CMC Spread Bet.

She was arrested and charged with making a false representation for the purpose of obtaining approval of creditors.

Judge Mooney said: ‘She seems to be addicted to spread-betting which is very high risk and she tried to gamble her way out of it,. That’s a classic trait in someone who is addicted to gambling.’

She was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to attend 20 hours of rehabilitation to address her gambling problem.