This is the dog café which was run by a heroin trafficking gang's "warehouseman".
Andrew Cain was already a two-time convicted class A drug dealer when he founded Pups and Cups Bistro in Old Swan. He allowed the ECHO a sneak peek at his new business ahead of its grand opening in 2018.
The now 39-year-old said at the time: "We wanted somewhere we could take the dogs and where we could buy them a doggy treat, o that is how Pups and Cups was thought of and since then it has just snowballed. Our brand is simple.
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"We want a place for people to take the fur babies and enjoy some nice food, coffee and cake. The fenced off area is for the dogs, to bring the dog community together whatever the weather to socialise with other dogs under the responsibility of dog owners."
The bistro, on Prescot Road, was described as the city's "first dedicated dog café". Treats for four-legged friends included pupcakes, bones and doggie meals as well as serving breakfast, lunch and dinner for owners.
Cain, the owner of a French bulldog, added: "I am also the director of a hospitality and training company, Charlton Recruitment and Training. We deliver hospitality courses and place people into work across the north west.
"Linking this to Pups and Cups, we will be giving barista training and work experience at the bistro to develop the candidates closer to the labour market. We are also taking to lone parents who haven’t worked for a long time into work. People can earn as they learn."
Many customers would have been unaware that Cain had previously been jailed for two years and eight months in 2009 for being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. He then served five years for possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply following another conviction in 2011.
Pups and Cups ultimately closed after he and his business partner went their separate ways around Christmas 2019. And Cain ultimately fell back into his old ways.
Liverpool Crown Court how police raided his home on Sedgeley Walk in Huyton on October 16 last year and found 606 wraps of heroin stashed under the floorboards. These class A drugs came with an estimated street value of £6,060 - with cutting agents, a set of scales and an electric mixer also seized from the address by officers.
Less than three weeks earlier on September 28 2021, a separate investigation in Scotland had discovered around a thousand wraps of heroin and crack cocaine found hidden on the banks of the River Don in a park in Stoneywood, Aberdeen. Cain's DNA was found on the wrappings, with a gang from Merseyside having been transporting and stashing the drugs for onward sale in the area.
Gerald Baxter, defending, described his client as a "warehouseman" who had stored the drugs and then posted them north of the border. He handed himself in at Copy Lane Police Station on November 11, and later pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs - receiving five years and 219 days behind at the High Court in Edinburgh back in May.
On Monday this week, Cain - now of no fixed address - appeared in court via video link to HMP Addiewell after admitting a further charge of possession of heroin with intent to supply. He was locked up for another four years.
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