A DISGRACED cop and her boyfriend have been locked up after selling sick and dying kittens to customers amid a £280,000 scam.
Former British Transport Police officer Amy Byrne, 30, and Harry Angell, 31, bought and bred the felines to sell for extortionate costs.
But after customers splashed out anywhere between £50 and £1,500 for a new pet many found they were malnourished, ill and covered in their own urine and faeces.
Some families even had to deal with the heartbreak of the kittens dying within days of welcoming them into their homes.
Byrne and Angell undertook the horror operation by using at least 33 fake names in adverts.
The twisted pair even pretend to be a genuine rehoming charity, and used the ID of someone who had bought a cat off them.
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They have now been thrown behind bars for a total of seven years – Byrne was jailed for three years and eight months, and Angell three years and four months.
The London couple were also disqualified from owning pets with no appeal for 10 years.
Byrne told buyers she was a vet and claimed the kittens had been wormed and microchipped.
She provided fake health certificates to back up her lies.
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The Woolwich Crown Court heard how on one occasion a mum bought a male kitten off the pair as a surprise for her autistic son who had recently lost his beloved pet.
The boy even made a thank you card for Byrne, which she accepted when she dropped off the feline.
But when she left the mum realised the cat was thin, had diorrhoea stuck to its fur and was actually a female.
The kitten tragically died a short time later, to the devastation of the boy.
Another family told of a similar grief after their new kitten died within two weeks of settling into their home.
The RSPCA gave six examples where cats died soon after being bought from Byrne and Angell.
Prosecutor Hazel Stevens told the court: "There were human and animal victims in this. Humans were at risk of getting these illnesses from the cat.
"Children who were excited about a new member of the family including one child who made a card to thank Amy Byrne, only to see them die days later."
The couple's home was searched in August 2021 after number of Trading Standards complaints were laid.
A total of 17 kittens were found and a vet said six of those were unwell.
The sick cats were taken away for treatment and one later died.
Amid the raid police took Angell's phone and discovered hundreds of photos of kittens, messages from to-be buyers and complaints from customers.
They also found him boasting about how he bought two kittens for £75, then sold them on for £600 each.
RSPCA discovered the couple intended to make a gain of £278,870 amid their scam.
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Byrne was a British Transport Police officer when the crimes were undertaken but she was fired in January this year after a misconduct investigation.
A hearing report said a hydroponics tent, two cannabis plants, a bag of cannabis, half-smoked joint and pack of cannabis seeds were also found at an address that she shared.
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