Two couples recently became famous for forming a plan to steal 15 King Charles spaniels from a dog breeder. After their theft was “Detected embarrassingly fast”, they have been given suspended jail sentences.
The 45-year-old Barbara Petrie-Harrison, and her partner, 42-year-old Craig Jackson, broke into the kennels in Middle Rasen, Lincolnshire, UK, in 2015.
The dogs were later found in West Yorkshire, the UK being held by the 51-year-old Barry Darling and the 40-year-old Bridget Darling.
Judge Andrew Easteal described the theft plan and its execution as “amateurish and doomed to fail”.
As the two couples admitted in front of the Lincoln Crown Court, Petrie-Harrison and Jackson performed the theft and then “got together” with the Darlings.
Petrie-Harrison and Jackson climbed over a fence to break into the building where the dogs resided.
The crime was reported on 23 September the officers found 11 of the dogs just 3 days later. They did so after tracking the car to the Darlings’ home after picking the car up on CCTV.
Prosecutor Lisa Harding said that according to the dogs’ owner, Madeline Cowling, the stolen dogs were 15 in total.
Lincolnshire Police said that another dog was recovered from the side of a motorway near Leeds. Apparently, the dog had been thrown from a moving vehicle.
Barry Darling, who had 34 previous convictions for 67 offenses, as well as Petrie-Harrison and Jackson, were sentenced to 16 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months.
Bridget Darling got a sentence of 12 months suspended for 18 months. Her slightly lesser sentence was justified because she apparently played a lesser role in the whole organization.
Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Easteal said: “Let’s be clear, this was as deplorable and awful as it was amateurish and doomed to fail.
“The speed it was detected was almost embarrassingly fast.”
