MP calls for harsher sentence after 41 dog deaths

3 hours ago

Rachael McMenemy

News image — Oaveed Rahman was jailed for five years after 21 dogs and a cat were found in terrible conditions

Essex Police A man wearing a white top with a black stripe down the shoulder. He has a beard and he is looking at the camera. It is a custody photo. — Oaveed Rahman was jailed for five years after 21 dogs and a cat were found in terrible conditions

An MP is calling for the jail sentence to be increased for a man who ran an animal rescue centre where 41 dogs were found dead.

Essex Police found the dogs in squalid conditions at Save A Paw's premises in Crays Hill, near Basildon, in May 2025.

Oaveed Rahman, 26, who ran the centre, was jailed for five years after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to animals, namely 21 of the dogs and a cat, and 11 offences of fraud by false representation.

Richard Holden, Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, has written to the Attorney General Richard Hermer saying the sentence sent the "wrong signal" about the seriousness of the offending.

A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said it was aware of the referral and preparing a response.

The attorney general is the government minister who can examine sentences if someone thinks they are unduly lenient.

Holden said the incident had "horrified not just the local community but has touched the hearts of animal lovers right across our country".

Rahman, of Hope Road, Crays Hill, also took about £4,800 from his victims, telling them the money would be used to rehome the animals.

However, he actually left the pets to suffer and did not keep in touch with the families to update them on their progress, as he had promised.

During sentencing Judge Richard Conley said: "No sentence that I can lawfully impose can adequately reflect the justifiable anger and disgust at what you have done."

Reuters Conservative MP Richard Holden, wearing a suit and blue tie — Conservative MP Richard Holden has urged the Attorney General to review the sentence as unduly lenient

In Holden's letter to the attorney general he said the facts of the case pointed to "higher culpability" and asked for an urgent review under the unduly lenient sentence scheme to consider increasing Rahman's sentence.

He highlighted "prolonged and systemic neglect; live animals housed among the dead; deliberate deception of owners across the country; and extreme suffering inflicted on wholly dependent animals".

"A five-year sentence for offending of this magnitude risks sending the wrong signal about the seriousness with which large-scale animal cruelty and fraud are treated," he said.