British tourists in Brazil fraud receive community service sentence

RIO DE JANEIRO — Two British tourists found guilty of attempted fraud for falsely declaring a robbery were given a community service sentence by a Rio de Janeiro judge on Wednesday.

Shanti Simone Andrews and Rebecca Claire Turner, both law graduates and both aged 23, had risked up to five years in jail after being convicted.

The judge delivered a sentence of 14 months in prison plus one month in supervised detention — but converted it to be served as months of community service instead.

The women, who now have a criminal record likely to bar them from entering the legal profession when they return to Britain, can opt to carry out either one hour of community service per day for 16 months, or two hours per day for eight months.