Stansted Airport: Tortoise smugglers due in court

TWO people who have been charged with a total of 42 offences in relation to the illegal importation of endangered tortoises to the UK are due to appear at Chelmsford magistrates court tomorrow (Friday December 4).Michael Gates and Carol Wormley, both ag

TWO people who have been charged with a total of 42 offences in relation to the illegal importation of endangered tortoises to the UK are due to appear at Chelmsford magistrates' court tomorrow (Friday December 4).

Michael Gates and Carol Wormley, both aged 42 from Woodend Road, Walthamstow, east London, were arrested at Stansted Airport on Friday July 17, after arriving on a flight from Corfu.

Four tortoises were found in their luggage.

All charges against them fall under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Gates and Wormley have both been charged with one count of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, six counts of failing to ensure animal welfare, seven counts of possessing an animal taken from the wild and seven counts of transporting an animal taken from the wild.