A puppy seller has been convicted in court after he pleaded guilty to misleading three consumers and ‘causing serious emotional damage’ during the Covid pandemic.

Patrick Stokes, 23, of New Acres, Nine Mile Ride, Wokingham, advertised three puppies for sale on Gumtree in June 2020, organising collection from a local Bracknell pub.

The misleading’s by Mr Stokes included false representations as to the health, breed, age, vaccination, and microchip status of the puppies, totalling eight convictions contrary to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

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The sentencing judge, Recorder Fugallo, made a number of observations during the hearing at Reading Crown Court on November 21 2022.

He said that “these offences all took place in the summer of 2020 during the first lockdown when there was an increased market and a very lucrative market for puppies.”

Fugallo commented that ‘very serious harm and suffering was caused to the animals’ and that ‘there was also serious emotional impact on the owners' and 'there were implications for the community from the risk of contagious animal viruses being spread’.

The first transaction occurred on June 11 2020 when a Jack Russell terror cross Cocker Spaniel was sold with the reassurance that the puppy was microchipped, wormed and vaccinated.

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After purchasing, the new owners took the puppy to the vet who described him to be in such poor health he required extensive treatment, including hospitalization for a highly contagious parvovirus.

The second incident happened on June 16 2020, in relation to a 11 week old Rottweiler puppy. According the Public Protection Partnership, Mr Stoke provided false microchip documents  to the purchasers at the time of sale.

After a trip to the vet three days after the sale, they found that not only was he not microchipped but he was also a young adult animal instead of 11 weeks as described.

He was considered very small on account of being ‘very emaciated’ and was said to startle at loud noises by owners.

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On June 21, the third puppy, an eight-week-old Jack Russell was advertised for sale. Upon further inspection by the vet, he concluded the age of the dog was 5 or 6 weeks old which was too young to be separated from his mother.

The heart-breaking decision to put the puppy to sleep came from the fact that he had a heavy worm burden, was suspected to be infected with parvovirus and was likely not a pure Jack Russell or even Jack Russell at all.

Mr Stokes was sentenced to an 18 month Community Order with a requirement to complete 180 hours of unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay compensation of £4,850 to the three consumers for the costs they had incurred in veterinary treatment and bills.

Cllr John Harrison, Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection at Bracknell Forest Council said, “These offences occurred in June 2020 when there was a national lockdown.

"A range of representations were made by Mr. Stokes in the course of selling the puppies to their new owners. The detailed investigation by the Trading Standards team established these to be misleading.

"The significant Community Order imposed by the Courts reflects the gravity of the offending and we were pleased that the Court awarded compensation to purchasers of the puppies."