A DEVASTATED cat owner was almost scammed out of £600 after fraudsters claimed to find her beloved missing pet. 

Leanne Henshaw, from Pitsea, received a phone call asking for a £5 release fee for their missing cat Paxton.

However, after handing over the money they went to collect Paxton but he was nowhere to be seen. 

Once Mrs Henshaw, 49, arrived at the vets she realised she had been scammed, but fortunately her bank had already blocked her card. 

The fraudsters had tried to withdraw £600. 

Mrs Henshaw said: “The phone rang, it was a private number, the man said he was from the RSPCA, and said Paxton had been found alive and well.

“He told me the RSPCA got our number from a microchip, that Paxton is at Cherrydown Vets in Basildon and that there is a £5 release fee to be paid before we can go and collect him.

“Now me being so elated thinking our cat was found, and after all the explanation from ‘the RSCPA’, I then paid the £5.”

Paxton, a two-year old cat, originally went missing on the November 13.

Mrs Henshaw added: “After paying the £5, we then went to the vets and Paxton wasn’t there.

“It suddenly hit me, it dawned on me I had been scammed.

“I then called the bank, but thankfully they had already put a stop on my account as they had realised that the transactions were out of character, and it was lucky they did as they tried to take more than £600.”

Despite nearly losing out on the money, Mrs Henshaw said the worst part was her husband Daniel, 49, and daughter Megan, seven-years-old, thinking they would have their pet home for Christmas.  

She added: “We’re absolutely devastated as I’m disabled and my husband, my daughter and I are also actually all autistic and so for my daughter her animals are her world.

“We really thought in that moment our cat had been found and would be home for Christmas.”