By Ed Riley For Mailonline
Published: 10:35 BST, 7 May 2019 | Updated: 10:35 BST, 7 May 2019
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Puppy breeders including a former Crufts judge have been ordered to repay more than £5million in lost taxes in a crackdown on traders selling dogs on the black market.
HM Revenue and Customs recovered the huge sum in unpaid taxes from 257 separate cases in a four year operation targeting dogs being sold illegally across the UK.
Among those HMRC said were targeted by its special taskforce were a former Crufts judge breeding puppies in the Midlands, who was found to owe £185,000 in unpaid tax.
A breeder in Swansea is being ordered to pay back £110,000, and unconnected puppy breeders in the West of Scotland who were handed tax bills of £425,000 and £337,000.
HM Revenue and Customs recovered the huge sum in unpaid taxes from 257 separate cases in a four year operation targeting dogs being sold illegally across the UK. Pictured: Dogs recovered during Operation Delphin
Others included a dealer in Northern Ireland, told to pay £185,000 in tax while a Somerset breeder was given a £114,000 bill.
HMRC launched the investigation in 2015, after animal welfare groups expressed concerns puppies were being reared on a mass scale and sold illicitly in the UK.
Several arrests have been made during the operation, and a total of £5,393,035 in lost taxes.
Durham kennel owner, Kevin Knox, pleaded guilty to the fraudulent evasion of tax and VAT in March 2018.
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