Man jailed for blackmail over Wrexham dog-napping.

 

A man has been jailed for blackmail after a pet owner was told to pay £2,500 for the return of his stolen dog.

The owner of the Bullmastiff, was led to a shop in Wrexham to withdraw cash but police swooped after being alerted.

Tom Evans, 21, from Pentre Broughton, admitted blackmail and was jailed for 16 months at Mold Crown Court, sitting at Chester.

The dog was returned to its owner.

The court heard that the dog was stolen from a house in the Southsea area last October.

Then the owner was approached by a man claiming a group had his pet and he had come to negotiate its safe return.

He demanded £2,500 and said that if he told the police the dog would be killed.

Three men in a van turned up with the dog and asked for £250 before the dog saw his master and jumped out of the vehicle leading to a scramble as the men recaptured the dog, the court heard.

The owner agreed to get the money and was walked by Evans to a cash machine, explained prosecutor Elizabeth Ball.

Co-defendant Daniel Evans, 19, of Condover, Shrewsbury, the van owner who admitted stealing the dog received a 12-month community order.

He was ordered to carry out 140 hours unpaid work.

John Wyn Williams, defending Evans, said that while blackmail was always serious, this was a dog napping case which was at the lower end of the scale.