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A retired teacher's home was raided by police and the BBC after a potential buyer spotted her illegal collection on Zoopla.

Susan Tate, 57, was selling up and one photograph on the home buying website featured a small toy in the shape of a howling wolf, perched on the top of a cabinet in her living room.

The seemingly innocent collectible triggered a police raid with officers turning up accompanied by a Crimewatch TV crew.

When they realised the fake wolf was a toy they searched the rest of the home and discovered Susan's taxidermy collection, including 20 stuffed animals and bones.

Most were perfectly legal but a few items landed Susan in trouble, including a porpoise skull she found on a beach ten years ago.

Police also questioned a stuffed Scottish wild cat she inherited from her mother, a blue butterfly bought online and a red squirrel purchased via Ebay for £40 years ago.

(Image: Lee McLean / SWNS)

Retired biology teacher Susan said she had no idea the items were illegal and had no choice but to plead guilty, accepting a £224 fine plus £650 in costs.

Dog sitter Susan, whose parents were police officers, said she had no idea she needed a licence for her collection and has slammed the force for its "heavy-handed" raid.

She said: "The police said they received information from someone about the wolf online and checked if I had a certificate to own a stuffed wolf, and obviously I don't.

"It's ridiculous that's how the got a warrant. It was just a toy.

"Without the photos online all this would never have happened.

"The whole thing has done me a lot of harm. How the police handled it was appalling and I was devastated by it.

"I thought they were going to send me to jail and I was absolutely terrified", said Susan.

"My husband said there's a film crew outside and we could not believe it.

"I realise that I have done something wrong but that was not justified.

"It was too far. I was accused on television and made to feel like I'd committed a serious crime.

"It was heavy-handed to have the BBC turn up. We live in a small village and it was turned into a circus."

(Image: Lee McLean / SWNS)

Susan and security worker Jonathan, 56, listed their home in Bryn Rhedyn, near Anglesey, Wales, online for sale via Zoopla in mid-2018.

Photographs of inside their house - featuring the 16-inch tall wolf - were posted with the online listing, and a house buyer reported the toy to police.

Susan's house was stormed by North Wales Police offers on February 5 this year, accompanied by BBC Crimewatch cameras.

After initially pleading not guilty at a preliminary hearing, Susan admitted three counts of possessing of a dead animal which had been taken from the wild and one count of possessing a dead wild animal, in Caernarfon magistrates' court on Friday.

She said she was "blindly oblivious" her hobby was breaking the law.

She said she inherited the cat from her mother in 2006, found the porpoise skull on a Dorset beach more than a decade ago, bought the large blue butterfly online as part of a collection years ago, and the red squirrel from Ebay for £40 in 2014.

The other 15 or so items - including butterflies, an alligator head, mummified rat, ducklings and Victorian house cat - were returned to Susan as legal items.

(Image: Lee McLean / SWNS)

"I am fascinated by it all and I certainly have never wanted to harm anything", said Susan.

"I never dreamt I might have been prosecuted for owning them, it never crossed my mind.

"The police said they received information from someone about the wolf online and checked if I had a certificate to own a stuffed wolf, and obviously I don't.

"It's ridiculous that's how the got a warrant. It turns out I did have illegal taxidermy but the wolf had nothing to do with it. It was just a toy.

"Without the photos online all this would never have happened.

"The whole thing has done me a lot of harm. How the police handled it was appalling and I was devastated by it.

"The cat has been in our family for years, I don't even know how old it is.

"I bought a wooden box of butterflies and it was just one in the whole collection that I was caught out for.

"The squirrel I just bought on Ebay so never ever thought it was illegal to own it. Why can you buy things like that online if you can be prosecuted for it? It's ridiculous."

(Image: Lee McLean / SWNS)

She continued: "I picked the skull up on the beach and thought it was interesting so took it home with me. But it's an endangered species, how was I to know?

"I have to accept that I am in the wrong.

"I presume there will be an awful lot of people who don't have the right paperwork to buy these things.

"These people are just harmlessly enjoying a hobby.

"One of the officers said it was the biggest collection of illegal taxidermy without papers he'd ever seen in his life. But only four items were not allowed.

"I was made out to be like a major criminal with the BBC turning up."

The police raid at Susan's Welsh home aired on BBC's Crimewatch show on March 6 this year.

She says she felt like she had committed a major crime and was "vilified" in front of the nation.