RSPCA's £11K bill as woman appeals ban
The RSPCA is today facing an £11,000 bill after a woman from Mid Wales tried to overturn a ban preventing her from keeping cats.
Six cats were seized by the RSPCA last year from the home of 56-year-old Sharon Harrington-Hawes after she had been banned from keeping cats and dogs for 10 years.
She was convicted by Welshpool Magistrates in February of having the cats while disqualified.
Magistrates fined Harrington-Hawes, of Pen Rhos, Carno, Caersws, near Newtown, £100 with £900 costs and imposed a further five-year ban.
They ordered the cats be seized and re-homed.
She appealed against the conviction and sentence but it was thrown out by Judge Niclas Parry sitting at Mold Crown Court on Friday.
The court was told that because of the appeal, the cats were kept at a cattery near Mold costing £725 a month. Those costs, along with legal costs, now total £10,780 for the RSPCA.
The RSPCA's barrister, Sion ap Mihangel, told the court that a trainee RSPCA inspector visited the property in Caersws and noticed some cats in a shed outside.
"She spoke to Harrington-Hawes and reminded her she could not keep cats or dogs and Harrington-Hawes told her the ban was over and that she had spoken to an RSPCA inspector who told her she could keep the cats. She checked and no such advice was given."
Four cats found in the shed were seized along with two other cats in the house.
Harrington-Hawes said she thought the ban applied only to dogs, and not cats.
The judge said the 10-year ban would have expired on April 21, 2012. He upheld the magistrates' decision that Harington-Hawes contrib-ute £1,000 towards costs and dismissed her appeal against conviction and sentence.
