STUFF JUSTICE!

Taxidermy fan given criminal record... thanks to estate agent snaps of her collection

A RETIRED teacher received a criminal record for having an illegal stuffed animal collection after a house buyer spotted images on an estate agent website.

When Susan Tate, 57, put her house up for sale, pictures of the animals appeared on the Zoopla site – including one of a toy wolf on top of a cabinet in her living room.

It led to a raid by police – accompanied by a film crew from BBC’s Crimewatch – who seized 20 stuffed animals and bones.

Most of the former biology teacher’s pieces were returned as they were perfectly legal, but four of the items landed her in trouble, including a porpoise skull she found on a beach, a stuffed Scottish wildcat she inherited from her mother and a red squirrel bought on eBay years ago.

The mother of one said she had no idea the items were illegal but had no choice but to plead guilty and accept a £224 fine, plus £650 costs when the matter was brought to court.

Mrs Tate, whose parents were police officers, now has a criminal record and has criticised police and the BBC for the ‘heavy-handed’ raid on the home she shares with security worker husband, Jonathan, 56.

She said: ‘The police said they received information from someone about the wolf online and checked if I had a certificate to own a stuffed wolf, and obviously I don’t.

‘It’s ridiculous that’s how they got a warrant. It was just a toy.

‘The whole thing has done me a lot of harm. How the police handled it was appalling and I was devastated by it. I thought they were going to send me to jail and I was absolutely terrified. My husband said “there’s a film crew outside” and we could not believe it.

‘I realise I have done something wrong but that was not justified. It was heavy-handed to have the BBC turn up.

‘We live in a small village and it was turned into a circus. I was made out to be a major criminal.’

Seven officers from North Wales Police’s rural crime team and a TV crew of three arrived at Mrs Tate’s home in Newborough, on Anglesey, on February 5.

The raid was shown on Crimewatch a month later, and Mrs Tate said she felt ‘vilified’ in front of the

‘Never crossed my mind it was illegal’

nation. She said she was ‘blindly oblivious’ her taxidermy collection was breaking the law, adding: ‘I am fascinated by it all and I certainly have never wanted to harm anything. I never dreamt I might have been prosecuted for owning them, it never crossed my mind.’

After initially pleading not guilty at a preliminary hearing, Mrs Tate admitted four counts of possession of a dead wild animal at Caernarvon Magistrates’ Court on Friday last week. She was fined £56 for each of the four charges and ordered to pay £650 costs.