Cruel puppy farmer facing jail sentence

Grace Banks

A puppy farmer with six aliases was caught out by her escort agency emails, preened eyebrows, ‘pouting lips’ — and white Mercedes Benz.

Designer-clad Grace Banks (29) faces jail after being found guilty of animal cruelty and fraud following a trial.

The cruel and callous’ fraudster, who also worked as an escort, imported and sold often severely ill puppies to unsuspecting families — some of whom contracted diseases from their new pets.

Banks was caught by the RSPCA after a raid at her £850-a-month address on Buckstones Road, Shaw, in April 2015. Inspectors found a dead puppy in the boot of her Mercedes.

It had died of parvovirus — which would have caused two days of agony.

For months, she had played the part of a caring woman with a one-off litter — even giving away cosy blankets with the puppies so they could feel ‘safe’.

In reality, the tiny animals were riddled with contagious diseases, kept in pens, advertised using fake images downloaded from Google and other websites — and sold for up to £600.

Buyers all described Banks’ white Mercedes, ‘HD Brows, long black hair and pouty lips’.

There were other telltale signs — she advertised on website Pets4Homes, numerous mobile phones were uncovered marked with puppy breeds, and her email address matched the one used to advertise her services as an escort.

She also routinely told buyers they could not meet the puppies’ mothers because they were separated for ‘weaning’. Instead, she’d show them a fake picture in a pink heart frame.

Also found were a pile of blankets, puppy pens and an iPad recording puppy sales.

Brazen Banks had been selling the dogs while on bail awaiting trial for running a puppy farm with her brother, Julian King. That case had been the biggest of its kind ever prosecuted by the RSPCA, involving thousands of puppies.

Description

Jailed for five months last October after pleading guilty on the day of trial — she was released in time to stand trial again.

This time, she blamed a friend — who just happened to match her description and also drive a white Mercedes.

Banks, of Reed Street, Gorton and also known as Leah Rogers and Lilly Cooper, used two Oldham addresses to sell puppies.

Finding Banks guilty at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Nicholas Sanders described her as a ‘completely unconvincing’ witness who struggled to remember a ‘concocted’ story and ruled the she was selling the puppies, with a male accomplice.

He added: “Although I only heard evidence of eight puppies, it is clear that she was involved in the selling of many, many more. Ms Banks is a thoroughly dishonest woman who has inflicted considerable misery on innocent members of the public through her activities with animals.

“She knew that her victims would be unable to resist the purchase of a puppy even though they had misgivings about the arrangements and what they were being told.

“Her approach to animal welfare was cruel and callous. She has shown no remorse.”

He found Banks guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a puppy, not ensuring the needs of nine puppies, keeping a pet shop without a licence and fraud.

Warning Banks she faced jail, he adjourned the case to Crown Court so they could impose a sentence longer than six months.