Fraudsters left Shropshire dog rescue charity on brink of closure

Birch Hill Dog Rescue was among those targeted in an international, multi-million pound fraud by Wyvern Media, a company based in Derby that took more than £5,000 from the charity.

Trustees at Birch Hill also believe the stress may have contributed to the decline of dog rescue founder Jutta Patterson, who died of lung cancer last year.

The managing director of Wyvern Media, Jonathan Louis Rivers, 55, of Dingle Lane, Coleshill, Birmingham, has admitted to fraudulent trading along with six co-directors, after the company mis-sold advertising, used aggressive sales techniques and took money for adverts that had not been agreed.

Two other employees have admitted fraud by false representation and one to false accounting.

The company, which had a head office at Derby's Wyvern Business Park, had 11 offices across the Midlands and the south west, and employed about 250 people.

Nottinghamshire County Council is hoping to recover up to £155,000 in proceeds of crime for 67 of the victims who have been unable to reclaim their losses.

Wendy Watts, a volunteer and trustee of Birch Hill Dog Rescue, which is based at Neen Sollars, near Cleobury Mortimer, said the ordeal for owners Terry and Jutta Patterson lasted two years from 2011 and greatly affected Jutta's health.

She said she would be attending the sentencing of the men tomorrow at Nottingham Crown Court.

"We are still fighting on the sake of the dogs and to keep Jutta's legacy alive, but the impact of this fraud has devastated the charity and all of us involved," she said.

"We are determined we are not going to give up. These people are the lowest of the low and I don't know how they can live with themselves. We want justice even though it won't bring Jutta back.

Councillor Glynn Gilfoyle, chairman of Nottinghamshire County Council's community safety committee, said: "We've been preparing this mammoth and complicated case for over five years and I'd like to pay tribute to the hard work of our investigators.

"We urge businesses to place adverts in reputable publications and not to be put under pressure from any advertising salesperson, no matter how good the deal sounds."

We want justice for Jutta, say workers

Wendy Watts said the charity was now determined to keep going after the death of Jutta Patterson, who ran it with husband Terry until her death from lung cancer last year at the age of 64.

She said: "The dogs always came first with Jutta so she kept it to herself. It's only after her death that we found out about how deep this whole thing became.

"She was approached by the company who said she had won an award as their charity of the year and she would get free newspaper adverts paid by sponsors for 12 months. She didn't suffer fools gladly and it seemed a good deal.

"This led to endless calls pushing her to pay for more advertising and payments for adverts that she had not even sign up to and they took out loads of payments from our account without permission.

"We are quite remote but they sent out forceful characters who made her sign for things – it got very nasty.

"One hundred pounds is a lot of money for the charity and we spend our weekends voluntarily trying to raise money to keep things going so for this company to take this amount from us is beyond belief.

"You can imagine how long it would take us to raise £5,000. It got to the point where one of her own dogs became ill and Jutta couldn't afford to take it to the vets.

"We feel the massive stress brought on Jutta's cancer – she died two days after her diagnosis.

"Terry still can't talk about it without breaking down but he is soldering on along with the volunteers.

"Jutta never turned away a homeless dog and would even look after them in her home if she didn't have space at the kennels.

"These people are the lowest of the low and I don't know how they can live with themselves.

"We want justice even though it won't bring Jutta back.

"We nearly closed in August 2015 due to lack of funds but we are adamant that these people will not be the reason the charity no longer continues.

"It has crippled us really, but we are determined we're not going to give up."