Kon and Liudmila Petropoulos charged with animal cruelty offences again

A former Geelong businessman and his wife have again been charged with animal cruelty offences, just months after pleading guilty to similar crimes and being spared jail time.

A FORMER Geelong businessman and his wife have again been charged with animal cruelty offences, just months after pleading guilty to similar crimes and being spared jail time.

RSCPA Victoria on Tuesday announced Kon and Liudmila Petropoulos had been charged with a series of animal cruelty offences after raiding their Ballarat property in July due to complaints the couple were breaching a court ordered ban by continuing to operate an allegedly illegal breeding business.

Kon Petropoulos and wife Liudmila leaving the Geelong Magistrates’ Court earlier this year.

In March the pair pleaded guilty to animal cruelty in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court, and were fined and banned from selling domestic animals for 18 months.

The court heard the pair had stuffed kittens into a container and sold them from their East Geelong home without a licence to do so.

RSPCA Victoria’s Major Investigations team seized nine kittens at the couple’s Ballarat property in July due to breaches of the Domestic Animals Act, and charged the pair with confinement of an animal where the confinement causes, or is likely to cause, unreasonable pain or suffering, and failure to provide veterinary or other appropriate attention or treatment for an animal.

Mr Petropoulos was also charged with offences of failure to comply with the mandatory Code of Practice, sale of animals in a public place, offences relating to the advertising of animals for sale and breaching a banning order for operating an illegal domestic animal rearing business.

Mrs Petropoulos was further charged with breaching a banning order for working in an illegal domestic animal rearing business.

The RSPCA’s July raid of the couple’s Ballarat home came after members of the public submitted official reports regarding the pair.

“We rely on public informants to provide tip-offs and information which legally enables us to investigate cases like these,” Inspectorate Team Leader of the Major Investigations Team Lisa Calleja said.

“With the information we received from the public we were able to execute warrants, seize nine kittens and ultimately lay these new charges and proceed to prosecution.”

Mr Petropoulos was also fined $5000 in October for aggravated cruelty to an animal, abandoning an animal and failing to provide veterinary treatment to a sick animal, after he abandoned a sick animal he owned which later died in Belmont in 2017.

Charges alleging the couple sold sick and emaciated kittens to unsuspecting buyers were thrown out, after they were accused of duping people into buying severely unwell kittens, some of which died within days of being sold.

Charges were laid after police from the Geelong criminal investigation unit raided the pair’s Kilgour Street home in November 2017.

Inside the property, police found 32 animals, including four dogs, two cats and 26 kittens.

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Originally published as Kon and Liudmila Petropoulos charged with animal cruelty offences again