Two women have been spared jail for keeping more than 100 dogs and puppies in dire conditions at a puppy farm.

Teresa Wade, 58, of Ship Lane, Aveley, in Essex, and Victoria Montgomery, 56, of Melford Avenue, Barking, in London, both pleaded guilty at Southend Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, February 20 part-way through a trial for a string of animal welfare offences.

The RSPCA and police executed a warrant at a site in Essex - and two other residential addresses, one in Essex and one in London - officers found 76 dogs and puppies, including poodles, cocker spaniels and some of the popular designer crossbreed types such as cavachons, cockerpoos and golden doodles. 

The dogs were seized and placed into the RSPCA’s care and a number of pregnant bitches went on to have 27 puppies in the charity’s centres. Of the 103 dogs in total, four sadly died, but courts ordered for the remaining 99 dogs to be rehomed ahead of the court hearing. 

RSPCA inspector Carroll Lamport, who led the investigation, said:“After a number of calls from people who had bought puppies that had fallen ill we became suspicious of a gang who appeared to be selling a large number of puppies.

“The dogs were being bred on an industrial scale at a site in Aveley and were kept in disgusting conditions in makeshift kennels and pens in outbuildings.

“When it was time to sell the puppies - for hundreds of pounds each - they would be moved to two houses being used as front addresses to sell the puppies from. The staged houses to gave the impression that the dogs were much-loved family pets. The reality was far from that.

“These dogs were kept in dark, damp pens covered in filth. They were in terrible conditions, riddled with worms and fleas, with matted, dirty coats. Many of them were extremely poorly with campylobacter and giardia - both serious and potentially deadly parasitic illnesses.”

Wade pleaded guilty to three animal welfare offences and was disqualified from keeping dogs for 10 years and was given a five-month prison term, suspended for 11 months. She was also ordered to pay £500 in costs and a £115 victim surcharge. 

Montgomery admitted one animal welfare offence and was given a three-month jail term, suspended for 11 months, and was also ordered to pay £500 in costs and a £115 victim surcharge.

This comes after the RSPCA launched a large-scale investigation - called Operation Excel - in the breeding and selling of puppies in Essex in 2014 after receiving a string of calls from members of the public who had bought puppies that had become extremely sick or, in some cases, even died.