An international ivory dealer who traded in the tusks and teeth of endangered species has escaped a jail sentence.

Michael Elliot, 57, was obsessed with carved ivory and his home in Singlewell Road, Gravesend, was full of rare carvings, elephant tusks and hippo teeth.

Tusks of African elephants shot by poachers and the teeth of endangered hippos were brought from China for export to the US.

Police also recovered sperm whale jaws and a picture of Elliot squatting in a pile of tusks at a factory in China.

Prosecutor Rosa Dean told Southwark Crown Court: “It is the Crown’s case that Mr Elliot is a businessman who is at the hub of dealing in endangered species on an international scale.

“Some of the endangered species are in great demand and there is evidence that the trade has pushed some species closer to extinction and some of these products are made to order.”

Elliot was given a two-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of selling specimens of a controlled species, one count of purchasing specimens of controlled species and three counts of keeping for sale specimens of controlled species.

Read the full story in this week’s Gravesend Messenger