Fraudster gang sold dying dogs in £100k designer puppy scam
HUNDREDS of sick and dying dogs were sold to unsuspecting buyers in a £100,000 fraud by a puppy farming gang.
Nearly 2,000 animals were handed to new owners after being bred on an industrial scale at an unlicensed site.
Animal lovers were told the dogs – similar to fashionable cockapoos produced by cross- breeding cocker spaniels and poodles – had been home-reared and snapped them up for as much as £750.
But the ‘dirty and depressed’ animals sold by Teresa Wade, 57, had been kept in windowless sheds at a farm in Aveley, Essex, and were worth as little as £200.
Many turned out to have serious health problems or were infested with fleas. Some died soon after arriving at their new homes and one ‘vomited worms’.
Details emerged at a fraud trial that ended abruptly yesterday when Wade and another defendant, Victoria Montgomery, 55, changed their pleas to guilty four weeks into the six-week hearing.
They and two other defendants will be sentenced in December. A hearing covering alleged animal welfare offences will take place at a later date.
Speaking outside court, RSPCA inspector Carroll Lamport said: ‘These dogs were
‘They were dirty and depressed’
being bred and kept at a travellers’ site until it came time to advertise them online and sell them to unsuspecting members of the public, when they were moved to staged home environments.
‘This is a tactic more and more of these people are using to trick the public.’
Officers from the charity found 76 animals in squalid conditions when they raided the farm in October 2014 after a string of complaints. One enclosure with 14 dogs from different litters had no food or water.
Some of the bitches were pregnant and 27 puppies were born in RSPCA care.
Four dogs died after being rescued and the survivors were rehomed on the orders of a court. Many needed ‘intensive care’ and have ongoing problems including parvovirus, a life-threatening viral disease.
Mr Lamport told the trial at Basildon Crown Court: ‘They were dirty, some were pot-bellied and generally they appeared somewhat depressed.
‘For the most part, what bedding there was, of shredded paper, was wet and dirty. A lot of the water bowls were empty.
‘I would have expected these dogs to have had some proper heating and decent bedding, especially if they were pregnant or feeding puppies.’ Referring to one mixed-breed adult, he added that it had lots of sores and was ‘almost rotting away’.
It is not known how many dogs were bred at the site but Wade is known to have taken 1,900 dogs to vets for vaccinations in 2013 and 2014.
Prosecutor Hazel Stevens said: ‘ This enterprise, if licensed, would have been one of the largest breeding establishments in the UK. The sums of money involved put this as a fraud in excess of £100,000.’
Wade, of Aveley, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud.
Montgomery, from Barking, Essex, pleaded guilty to making false representations about the condition of the puppies being sold.
Her daughter Roxanne, 33, and partner Tony Hammond, 35, both from Dagenham, Essex, had already admitted the same offence.
Wade’s daughters Charlene Smith and Danielle Wade, both 29, denied conspiracy to commit fraud and the charges will lie on file.