Carter, who has left Britain to live in Spain, announced his retirement from the saddle last month and claimed he could not afford to defend himself.

He was found guilty of providing information for reward, aiding and abetting a breach of the rules, associating with an excluded person and endeavouring to mislead Jockey Club officials.

Carter believes the punishment was “very harsh”.

In a statement released through the Jockeys’ Association of Great Britain, he said: “I am very disappointed to hear the outcome of this case and believe this penalty is very harsh, although I am not surprised given the financial and logistical problems that meant I was unable to put forward my case.

“Since the original charges were published in July 2004, I have in effect been serving a ban and then again, when those charges were dropped and modified in April this year, the renewe press coverage helped to finally kill off the last few years of my career.

“I have a right of appeal but those same barriers exist.

“In the first set of charges, I was accused by the Jockey Club of stopping eight horses. The original charge was withdrawn this year and the Jockey Club even went so far as to confirm to the disciplinary panel it was not part of the case that I prevented any horse from winning. This was the opinion of their own stewards and then their own race-readers.

“I am obviously stunned this appears to have been ignored.”

John Blake, chief executive of the JAGB, added: “Given the Jockey Club charges, as I understood them, this decision is extremely severe.

“Gary has given a lot to racing over a 24-year career and it is an enormous shame for him that matters have concluded this way.

“The Jockeys’ Association remains fully committed to maintaining the integrity and security of our sport and upholding public confidence.

“In the specific matter of this case, it is clear the better co-operation we are seeking with the Jockey Club, particularly in terms of sharing information relating to warned off persons and other preventative measures, will help us achieve our common goals.”

At last week’s inquiry the disciplinary panel met to consider whether or not Carter, Christopher Coleman – an excluded person, Dean Coleman, Neil Yorke, Stephen Hobbs, Linda Hobbs, and James Nash had committed breaches of the Rules of Racing.

Having considered the evidence and arguments put before them, the panel found:

(1) that Gary Carter was in breach of Rules 243, 220(iv) and 220(viii). The panel declared him to be a disqualified person for five years, effective from October 12, and imposed a fine of £2,000 (€2,900) for the breaches of Rule 220(viii).

(2) that Christopher Coleman was in breach of the rules as alleged and that he had also unreasonably refused to cooperate with the investigation. The panel ordered that he should continue to be excluded indefinitely.

(3) that Dean Coleman, Neil Yorke, Stephen Hobbs and James Nash were in breach of the rules as alleged and that they had also unreasonably refused to cooperate with the investigation. The panel ordered that they should be excluded from all premises owned or licensed by the stewards of the Jockey Club with immeiate effect for an indefinite period.

(4) that Linda Hobbs was not in breach of the rules.

Neither Carter nor Coleman – nor the five other individuals involved – were in attendance.

At the inquiry the panel looked into the conduct of Carter and the others in connection with the running of eight races during August and September 2003.

These were Meadaaf at Newmarket on August 1, Aljazeera at Doncaster on August 2, Kristal’s Dream at Windsor on August 4, Tasneef and Dodona at Lingfield on August 8, Silvaline at Pontefract on August 17, Saxe-Coburg at Warwick on August 25 and Lilli Marlane at Ascot on September 26.

The betting patterns for these races aroused suspicion at Betfair, and the Jockey Club’s security department then began a detailed and intensive investigation.

A number of applications were made to the High Court to compel disclosure of various telephone and computer records.

Carter produced his mobile phone bills in response to a production order from the Jockey Club, and was interviewed by investigators on three occasions between January and April 2004.

It became clear to the panel that Carter had extensive contacts with Coleman before and after the eight races in question.

Though no phone contacts have been identified for the last two of the eight races, the panel concluded they must have taken place by so far unidentified means because the betting patterns on the last two races were similar to those on the races for which there is ample evidence that Coleman and Carter were phoning each other.

The panel also ruled Carter’s general denial of contacts with Coleman in August and September 2003 “is untrue” and the ex-jockey’s riding on Lilli Marlane at Ascot was, to put it at its lowest, “not intended to achieve the best possible placing”.

The panel concluded Carter was passing information to Coleman about how his rides would perform.

This motivated the latter and his allies to carry out their betting operations.

The panel viewed videos of each of the races, and considered them in the light of all the other evidence that has since emerged.

It concluded, again to put it at its lowest, “Carter did not ride them to achieve the best possible result”.

Andrew Chalk of Withy King solicitors, who initially advised Carter, said: “Gary was not charged with stopping horses and the Jockey Club were very clear this was not its case.

“Notwithstanding this, the panel concluded that Gary did not ride the horses on their merits.

“I am confident there would have been a different outcome had Gary been represented.

“The case highlights the problems that will continue to arise so long as the massive imbalance in resources between prosecution and defence continues to exist.

“The Jockey Club case could have been challenged in a number of significant ways, but for a number of reasons including the huge disparity in resources, Gary never had much chance of securing a level playing field.”

Channel 4 betting pundit John McCririck, giving his reaction to Carter’s punishment, was full of praise for racing’s regulators.

He said: “Every punter can now tke confidence that at last the authorities are fiercely tackling corruption.

“The Jockey Club’s crackdown on riders using mobiles on racecourses without supervision, has been proved to be justified.

“For decades racing has let fixing go unpunished through lack of will to besmirch the sport and inability to furnish proof. Thanks to Betfair, and to others, evidence is now available for the first time.

“Whatever the result of upcoming proceedings, the Jockey Club’s security chief Paul Scotney can no longer be accused of incompetence, scaremongering, failure or inaction.”