Danger pet ban for 'Lee Snake' (From Echo)

Danger pet ban for 'Lee Snake'

7:00am Friday 3rd July 2009

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A REPTILE keeper who cheated death after being bitten by one of the world’s deadliest snakes has been banned from keeping dangerous animals for ten years.

Dad-of-two Lee Thompson, 27, was just minutes from death after after a highly-venomous Australian common death adder sunk its fangs into his thumb in May last year.

Thompson, of Nelson Road, Basildon, was bitten when he was handling the snake at reptile shop Scales and Fangs in Leigh, where he worked.

But at Basildon Magistrates’ Court, Thompson, who is know to friends at “Lee Snake” because of his passion for reptiles, was told he can no longer handle dangerous creatures, after being prosecuted under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act.

He pleaded guilty to keeping a number of dangerous animals – including scorpions and snakes such as an Asian pit viper, Egyptian cobra, a Siamese spitting cobra and a Gaboon viper – without a valid licence at his home. The animals were not being mistreated.

He was also given a £350 fine and ordered to pay prosecution costs, totalling £1,775.

The reptiles are now being looked after at Heathrow Airport Animal Rescue Service.

Phil Eastell, manager of enivronmental health at Basildon Council, which brought the prosecution against Thompson, said: “This was a co-ordinated raid carried out in partnership with the police and the Heathrow Animal Rescue Service.

“We are pleased with this sentence of a lenghty ban which reflects the seriousness of this offence.”

After being bitten and spending four days in intensive care at Southend Hospital, Thompson managed to pull through after fighting off the poison without the aid of antivenom.

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