A puppy-farming gang that made up to £500,000 selling hundreds of sick and dying dogs has been spared jail. The group advertised 700 pups for sale, claiming they were home-bred designer dogs worth at least £450, but the animals were raised in squalid cages inside windowless sheds at a traveller site.
At Basildon Crown Court, Teresa Wade, 57, Victoria Montgomery, 55, her daughter Roxanne Montgomery, 33, and Tony Hammond, 35, admitted fraud. Wade received a 21-month suspended sentence, Victoria Montgomery a 14-month suspended sentence, and Roxanne Montgomery and Hammond nine-month suspended sentences. Animal cruelty charges will be pursued against Wade and Victoria Montgomery in a separate magistrates' court case.
Judge David Owen-Jones said: “This conspiracy was a sophisticated enterprise that required planning.” The estimated value of the fraud was between £100,000 and £500,000. Victims Jennifer and Edward Kimber, 26 and 29, endured the death of puppy Ellie just five days after taking her home, having paid £600.
Jennifer told the Mirror: “When we went to the vets to visit her and she was limp and lifeless. They told us that the kindest thing would be to put her down. We were completely devastated. People like us see dogs as a part of the family rather than just an animal.” The couple found the breeder on Pets4Homes and drove to an address in Romford, Essex, in March 2014.
Ellie was diagnosed with parvovirus and given just a five per cent chance of survival. Jennifer’s parents paid £2,000 to try and save her life, but she died five days later. Defence lawyers said Wade had “fallen on very hard times” and Hammond was “shocked” to hear of the puppies’ health problems, entering an early guilty plea.
