Thief caught with five French bulldog pups stolen from a breeder
AND SHE STOLE £500 FROM CITY HOTEL
A WOMAN was caught with five French bulldog puppies which hours earlier had been stolen in a burglary from a breeder in Derby.
Derby Crown Court heard how Fiona Harmer agreed to watch the five-week-old pups – worth £2,500 each – which had been snatched from a house in Chaddesden.
Earlier that day the 33-year-old and a second woman went to the address in Kinross Avenue under the pretence they wanted to buy one of the dogs.
Later, while the breeder was out, it was burgled and the puppies were stolen.
And months earlier Harmer helped herself to £500 when she worked behind the bar at a well-known Derby pub and hotel.
Jailing Harmer, now of London, for 18 months, Recorder Steven Gasztowicz QC said: “They were not ordinary goods, they were puppies being offered on sale on the open market.
“You assisted in their handling, but it is accepted you played no part in the burglary of the house or the theft of the French bulldogs.
“I also accept that you co-operated to an extent in enabling the dogs to be recovered by the owner and you were assaulted by someone (for doing so).”
Stefan Fox, prosecuting, said a second woman, who has not been
She admitted having the puppies a short amount of time after saying she had been asked to look after them. Stefan Fox
charged, arranged to view the puppies on February 19, last year.
He said Harmer went with her and towards the end of their viewing she went to the bathroom.
Mr Fox said hours later the home was burgled and the dogs were taken.
He said: “She was identified and admitted having the puppies a short amount of time after saying she had been asked to look after them.
“The prosecution accept her basis of plea that she did not open the bathroom window (at the burgled house) and was assaulted by a male when she assisted the owners of the pups by telling them where they were being kept.”
Harmer, of Parkhurst Road, Islington, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods and theft.
That related to her stealing £500 from the Derby Brewing Company when she worked behind the bar at the Kedleston Hotel, near Allestree, in October 2019.
Mr Fox said she told police the reason she did that was to “get back” at one of the bosses there after she spurned his advances.
Gary Short, mitigating, said his client did have a number of previous convictions but was trying to get her life back on track.
He said: “She had a harrowing childhood where things happened to her that no child should have done to them. She is wanting to change and doing all she can to change.”