THREE men who admitted a host of animal cruelty offences connected with dog fighting have been hit with huge fines.

Darren Wheatcroft admitted trying to arrange a fight between illegal pit bull terrier-type dogs, while his son, Callan, and farmer Simon Whitworth pleaded guilty to training the animals for fighting.

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All three were handed suspended jail sentences and ordered to pay a total of £40,000 to the RSPCA.

Burnley Magistrates’ Court heard how five illegal dogs wearing electrical shock collars were found covered with scars when the trio’s homes were raided last May.

Shocking footage, shot by RSPCA inspectors, showed some of the animals, which were imported from the Netherlands and trained using treadmills, were kept in urine-soaked cages without water.

Laptops, mobile phones and books were also seized in a joint investigation with Lancashire police known as Operation Cask.

Messages were uncovered from Darren Wheatcroft offering a £1,000 fee to secure a fight between his illegal dog and another.

District Judge James Clarke slammed dogfighting for its role in ‘creating a black market economy’ in East Lancashire.

He told the defendants: “These dogs are illegal for a reason. They are dangerous in the eyes of parliament. Their characteristics and their training can lead to significant physical injury to one another and they are dangerous to the public.

“I shouldn’t need to remind you that animals such as this have attacked members of your community. While not holding you responsible for that, you have knowingly involved yourself in an industry that perpetuates cruelty and criminality in relation to animals.

“The intention of fighting to the death shows a failure to take proper responsibility of these animals. I am satisfied that his took place over an extended period of time.

“Each of you has an unhealthy interest. You have invested a significant amount of finances and attempted - especially Darren Wheatcroft - to make money out of it, involving others and travelling abroad to acquire the animals. You were involved in criminality.”

Darren Wheatcroft, 48, and his son Callan, 22, both of Haywood Road, Accrington, admitted keeping and training three of the dogs.

Whitworth, 44, of Haslingden Old Road, Oswaldtwistle, admitted keeping and training another two dogs.

Darren Wheatcroft admitted a further charge of arranging a dogfight, although the RSPCA could not prove that the event ever took place.

Simon Farnsworth, representing the three defendants, said: “It is not fair to deal with all defendants equally harshly.

“Callan Wheatcroft may well have been involved under the influence of his father.”

In his summary of events, RSPCA prosecutor Chris Wyatt said that the animals had a large number of scars. The court also heard home medication kits had been found during the raids.

But he added: “It cannot be proved that these injuries were the result of recent fights or that the defendants were in possession of the dogs when they may have been involved in fights with other animals.”

All five illegal dogs - Dingo, Sheeba, Zula, Fenton and Mousey - were ordered to be destroyed.

Callan Wheatcroft, a part-time cameraman who films Blackburn Rovers football matches, was given a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and fined £10,000.

Father-of-two Whitworth, who works on his parents’ farm, was given the same suspended prison sentence but fined £15,000.

Married Darren Wheatcroft, who also has a daughter, was handed a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and also fined £15,000.

All three, who had originally denied the charges, were ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid community work and banned from keeping dogs for life.

Speaking after the hearing, chief inspector Ian Briggs, from the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said: “These people were actively involved in the dogfighting scene.

“They sourced dogs specifically for dogfighting, including going abroad. They were thoroughly knowledgeable in what they were trying to do and they set out deliberately to build up a stock of fighting dogs at their premises.

“We’ve got the result we wanted and they have been punished accordingly.”