A mother and son have been jailed for scamming £411,388 from up to 3,000 visitors to their online pet stores.

Mechelle and Ian Chatfield kept customers' credit card details and used them to take unauthorised payments.

They ran two websites – Paws Pets Supermarket, and Shop For Your Pets – from their five-bedroom rented farmhouse in Routh, near Beverley.

Both pleaded guilty earlier this month to a single charge of running a fraudulent business between January 4, 2010 and April 1, 2012.

At Hull Crown Court prosecutor David Dixon explained how the scam had worked.

He said: "In the normal way, items were selected by customers, their credit card details were provided and items would normally arrive. That was the lawful side of the business.

"However, they (Mechelle and Ian Chatfield) would then repeatedly use the cards to get more and more from their customers.

"As an example, one customer bought two dog coats at a total cost of £42.49. They arrived. However, following a letter from trading standards he checked his statements and realised that six extra payments had been taken. In fact, the dog coats cost him £297."

During the course of a detailed, two-year investigation by East Riding trading standards, a test purchase was made.

Mr Dixon said: "Even that test purchase credit card was subjected to repeated use. It was used a further five times."

Altogether there were 35,128 attempts to use customers' cards fraudulently, he said. Some attempts failed, either because cards had reached their limit or customers had reported fraudulent activity.

Mr Dixon said if all the fraudulent attempts had succeeded, the Chatfields would have netted £576,288.

Up to £30,000 of the money was blown on lavish holidays, including a Royal Caribbean International cruise, and a trip to Florida. But despite investigations, no assets could be found and none of the money has been recovered.

Judge Mark Bury sentenced each of the Chatfields to four-and-a-half years in prison.