Escort with ‘HD brows’ faces having fortune seized over £600,000 profits from puppy scam
AN ESCORT who sold puppies riddled with diseases faces having her fortune seized after two of her partners-in-crime were found to have made £600,000 profits from the cruel trade.
The 29-year-old was linked to the sale of eight suffering puppies - at a time when she was on bail for another offence of running a puppy farm with her brother, Julian King, 30, and his boyhood pal Peter Jones, 32.
In the earlier case, the trio sold 835 sick and dying puppies to families - after keeping the animals cramped in buckets.
Raids in 2012 and 2013 revealed Yorkshire terriers, huskies, West Highland terriers, pomeranians, Labradors, beagles, shih tzus, French bulldogs, cockapoos were being kept in distressing conditions at an address in Stockport, Gtr Manchester.
Now the M.E.N. reports King and Jones have appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court for Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings.
Nicknamed ‘the gangster tax’, the proceedings allows the authorities to go after the assets of racketeers.
Jones was found to have made £403,118.34 and King £211,722.63 from their illegal trade in puppies.
The amount former escort Grace Banks has made will be revealed on May 27, when she is expected to appear in court for her POCA hearing.
Last October “cruel” fraudster Banks was jailed for five months for her part in the sick trade.
She was released in time to stand trial for further charges of cruelty that came following a fresh RSPCA raid on her home 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’.
Finding Banks guilty at Manchester Magistrates’ Court earlier this month, District Judge Sanders said: “Ms Banks is a thoroughly dishonest woman who has inflicted considerable misery on innocent members of the public through her activities with animals”.
She will be sentenced shortly.