Members of a family-led gang of international puppy smugglers have been jailed for duping customers into buying sick and dying dogs.
Thirteen members of a ring led by the Cawleys, an Irish Traveller family, were sentenced yesterday after making more than £300,000 in a sophisticated fraud involving a fake breeder. The Buckinghamshire-based gang sold breeds including shih tzus through Daniel Yeboah, 45, at a house in Newport Pagnell, advertising under false identities.
Last month The Times revealed the proliferation and sophistication of unscrupulous breeders using “fake families”, often apparently middle-class, to scam buyers hoping to check that their pets came from good homes.
The court was told in the Cawley case that many buyers were tricked into buying sick and dying puppies out of pity after seeing the conditions they were kept in.
Sentencing the 13 defendants yesterday, Judge Francis Sheridan said: “You have all played your part in this disgusting trade and you preyed upon the kindness of British citizens.”
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Hazel Stevens, for the prosecution, previously said that excited new owners were disgusted when their pets started falling sick before they even got them home, with some so riddled with disease that they could not survive.
“Many people invested time and emotion as well as money,” she said. “They chose a name and planned the arrival of their new family member and were left devastated when the puppy was sick and in some cases died.”
Kimberley Duffy and her family bought a shih tzu puppy they named Barnaby, but the dog died soon after despite them spending £1,300 on vets’ bills. “He was an early Christmas present. When the children came home that evening, they too were extremely excited and we all bonded with him.”
She was angry and frustrated by the lies they had been told and the damage done to their children when the dog died, adding: “The loss and heartbreak will forever haunt us and is irreparable.”
The judge told consumers to take care when they bought dogs from the website Pets4Homes, used to facilitate the sale of many of the scammers’ puppies. He expressed frustration at Parliament for not giving him the power to seize more money from the smugglers.
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Most of the defendants admitted conspiring to dishonestly make false representations to make a gain for themselves. Other charges included failing to fulfil the duty of a person responsible for an animal to ensure its welfare and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Joseph Cawley Sr, 44, of Willen travellers’ site in Newport Pagnell, and his wife, Margaret, 46, were jailed for 45 months. Three other family members were jailed for between 27 and 42 months, and two more were spared jail.
Austin Paice, 34, of Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, and another frontman for the operation, John O’Brien, 49, of Milton Keynes, were jailed for 13 months. O’Brien’s wife was spared jail.
Rebecca Hall, 30, of Newport Pagnell, whose house was used to sell puppies, was given a four-month sentence, suspended for two years, and told to pay £750 in compensation. Yeboah, of Bletchley, was jailed for 42 months and his brother James, 43, was given nine months, suspended for two years.
Eleven gang members were banned from owning animals for ten years.
