Emma Bent, owner of a pet crematorium, was sentenced to eight months in jail for disposing of beloved pets’ bodies in ditches and sheds instead of cremating them with a “dignified send-off for their beloved pets” as promised by her crematorium service.
Her unspeakble and unthinkable unfolded as a stranger came across four decomposed bodies. Their microchips led them directly to Bent.
But instead of cremating them, Emma Bent left the bodies of the pets rotting in fields and sheds.
She was jailed for eight months yesterday for what a judge described as a ‘sinister and despicable’ fraud.
Her deception came to light after a walker stumbled across the decomposing bodies of four dogs. The RSPCA used their microchips to trace them back to Bent.
It is feared thousands of grieving pet owners could have been exploited by the 35-year-old who ran Peak Pet Cremations in Heage, Derbyshire.
Bent, who charged £140 for the service and caskets containing the ashes of the pets, carried out around 3,500 cremations, mostly of dogs and cats.
The website boasted that the company offered a ‘caring and understanding service at a sad time’.
But in reality, the mother-of-three had stuffed the remains of many cats, dogs and guinea pigs into plastic bags and dumped them in ditches and outbuildings and burned them on pyres.
More than 20 pet owners have sought expert opinions on the authenticity of the ashes they received and been told they were unlikely to have come from their animal. One couple were advised they had been given a casket containing bonfire ash.
Derby Crown Court heard that Bent, who admitted seven counts of fraud and a series of environmental and trading standards offences, had a deal with Ambivet Veterinary Group, which has four practices in Derbyshire, in 2005.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353056/Pet-crematorium-owner-Emma-Bent-pocketed-cash-dumped-pets-ditches.html#ixzz1Cv0KKDC8