The victims of an apparent dog theft fraud are now appealing for fresh information, more than a year since their two bull terriers went missing in suspicious circumstances.

Stephen and Mandy believe their Staffordshire bull terriers, Noah and Rosie, were stolen and resold in the Letchworth area – after the couple believed they had to donated them to a local volunteer.

“In the summer of 2018, my family and I were having a lot of difficulties with my son who has special needs,” Stephen said.

“He was not getting along very well with our two dogs, Noah and Rosie, and my wife and I didn’t want to see them hurting each other.

“We decided to find someone to either look after them for a bit to allow him to cool down, or – if we didn’t think it would get any better – to ultimately buy the dogs.”

Stephen and Mandy put out an advert locally, and received a response from a lady in Letchworth who was happy to take Noah and Rosie in.

“She sounded ideal, with plenty of experience of the breed of dog that we had. The lady didn’t drive, so a relative of hers came and collected the dogs. We had her address, so we thought everything was OK.”

Stephen and Mandy received a couple of calls that week to say that everything was OK – but that was where the communication suddenly stopped.

Worrying about what may have happened, Stephen and Mandy – from Milton Keynes – tried to get Rosie, 14, and five-year-old Noah returned – but were fed a series of excuses and stories as to their whereabouts.

“The lady turned out to just be on her own with two children. And the dogs, we were told, had been given to her mother,” Stephen said.

“Then followed many months of promises, and one point she agreed to return the dogs to us for a fee – and signed a letter saying she would do so.

“I paid the money as per the agreement but didn’t get the dogs! The last story we received was a drug-taking brother who had taken them in while the lady was unwell in hospital.

“It seems the dogs might have been sold for money almost as soon as we had passed them on – and the stories were just made up to put us off.”

If you have information about what happened to the couple’s dogs, please email news@thecomet.net.