Laurence Dollimore
AN Australian couple have called in police after splashing €24,000 on a trio of Spanish pedigree dogs that were never delivered.
Melissa and Jamie Tucker, both 45, paid a popular Spanish breeder a whopping 40,000 Aus dollars (€23,783) for three American Bully puppies.
They had hoped to begin a breeding business after Melissa, a former lawyer, was diagnosed with cancer, while Jamie gave up his transport business to care for her.
But after stumping up the cash for the dogs, things quickly went awry.
One of the trio was discovered to be suffering from a serious eye infection, so was unable to be sent abroad. The couple said the breeder said he would take it to the vet to be fixed, but that they would have to pay for it.
They say that violated the contract, in which the breeder vowed to deliver the puppies in a healthy condition and with no diseases or illnesses.
Meanwhile two females were sent to the UK to be checked over and sent to Australia, but one was found to have a deadly disease, while another had a different chip code to the one that was actually purchased, meaning customs wouldn’t let it travel.
The couple told the Olive Press they believe the code was switched by the breeder at the last minute.
They claimed they later found out that many of the documents provided by the breeder, including proof of vaccines, were doctored or faked.
“We want our money back,” Mel insisted from her home in Queensland this week.
“We also need to make sure he doesn’t do this to anyone else, as we’ve already found other victims in the UK, US, France and Japan.
“So far we’ve confronted him on social media but he has just blocked us on every platform.
“Our contract with him says the dogs would arrive in good health, he was unable to do that and so should return our funds.”
The couple have now been forced to file a police report in Australia and are liaising with cops in Spain to launch an investigation.
The breeder, Mohamed Amine Kerouani, aka Mino, has more than 16,000 followers on both Instagram and Facebook.
Kerouani, believed to be based in Barcelona, shares videos and pictures of himself flying across the world to pick up dogs, including in China and the Middle East.
When contacted by the Olive Press, he insisted he took care of the three dogs for almost a year before sending two to the UK ahead of them being sent to Australia.
He said he offered to take the male dog to the vet to fix his eye but that the couple said no, and that he sent over semen instead.
“I have already called in two lawyers on them,” he added.
