Former Love Island winner Jack Fincham has won an appeal against his prison sentence for two dangerous dog offences.
Fincham, 32, was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment at Southend Magistrates’ Court on 29 January after pleading guilty to two counts of having a dangerously out-of-control black cane corso.
But within hours of the sentencing, he was released on conditional bail and vowed to appeal it.
On Friday, Fincham, who won the ITV dating show with Dani Dyer in 2018, was told by a judge at Basildon Crown Court that the original sentence had not been “just in the circumstances”.
Fincham and his black cane corso Elvis. Pic: @jack_charlesf 2021
Instead, Judge Samantha Leigh set aside the custodial sentence and extended a suspended sentence he was given in March last year for two unrelated offences in 2023 – drug driving and fraudulent use of a registered trademark.
That order of 12 weeks custody – suspended for 18 months – has been lengthened by three months, Judge Leigh told the court.
Prosecutors said Fincham’s dog, Elvis, bit and injured the arm of a runner named Robert Sudell in Swanley, Kent, in September 2022.
Separately in June 2024, the dog grabbed a woman’s leg in Fincham’s hometown of Grays, Essex. It left no injury but the animal was said to be out of control.
Fincham attended a police interview of his own volition that month, when he received a caution and was told to keep the dog muzzled.
Prosecuting, Hannah Steventon said police then attended a hotel in August 2024 following reports the dog had been in a public pool area and was not on a lead or muzzled.
Fincham in 2021. Pic: PA
Defending, Richard Cooper, said Fincham had chosen the hotel specifically because it was advertised as “dog-friendly” online.
He then “let him off the lead at the swimming pool”, broadcasting the scene to his social media followers, “of which there are about two million”, he said.
Judge Leigh described this as “his own stupidity”.
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As part of the original sentence, Fincham was ordered to pay £3,680, including £2,000 in kennelling costs, a fine of £961, and £200 in compensation to Mr Sudell.
His lawyer said he had made “remarkable progress” since his last court appearance, “returning to a nine-to-five job” and boxing.
The judge warned him to be “very careful now”.
