A COURT case in which pet shop owners were found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to animals has cost the taxpayer £152,000.

Craig Basford and Lauren Gibson, of Weardale Avenue, Billingham, near Stockton, received 16-week jail sentences, suspended for 12 months, after being found guilty of eight counts of causing unnecessary to a total of 18 animals.

They also received eight-week sentences, suspended for 12 months, for each of the three counts of breaching pet shop licensing conditions.

All sentences run concurrently.

The couple were running Petropolis pet shop, in Billingham, when Stockton Borough Council animal welfare officers visited in August 2006, following a complaint by a member of the public.

Basford, 33 and Gibson, 25, were warned about the responsibility they had to the animals. A month later officers carried out a search of both the house and the shop and found dead animals, others without food and water, and a smell of animal faeces and urine.

More than 350 live animals and 22 dead animals were seized from the two premises.

Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday how the case had taken more than two-and-a-half-years to be completed.

District Judge Kristine Harrison said: “This case has cost the tax payer £152,000 so far and probably even more after today.

“This money will never be recovered.”

Basford and Gibson were ordered to undertake a supervision order for 12 months, subject to a curfew between 8pm and 6am for ten weeks, banned from keeping animals, with the exception of a pet dog and the two tanks of tropical fish they currently own, for seven years and banned for life from owning a pet shop.

They were also each ordered to pay £750 in compensation.

At a previous hearing, the couple were each found not guilty of a further 21 charges of unnecessary suffering and licencing.

They had denied all of the charges.

Simon Walker, mitigating, said: “It would be fair to say this couple have lost everything as a result of this case.”

Councillor Steve Nelson, Stockton council’s cabinet member for housing and community safety, said: “The sentences received by these two people are entirely appropriate for the crimes they committed.

“The animals in their care were horrendously mistreated by being kept in the most unacceptable conditions. I hope this sentence acts as a deterrent to anyone who would even consider treating animals like this.”