UK council investigates 12-year-old girl’s pretend teddy bear cafe for ‘illegal trading’

A 12-year-old girl in the United Kingdom was investigated by a local council after a report of illegal trading prompted an official to visit her family’s property, where she had set up a pretend teddy bear cafe for her stuffed animals.

Pianist Brendan Kavanaugh shared footage of the visit on X, showing a Bedford Borough Council planning enforcement officer arriving at the family’s home to investigate the child’s play cafe.

“For those of you who thought the visit from a Bedford Borough Council official to investigate our daughter Zoe’s (age 12) pretend teddy bear cafe was too ridiculous to be real, here is the arrival of officials,” Kavanaugh wrote. “This is totally legit. She really did show up at our property to investigate the illegal teddy bears having their coffee.”

The video showed planning enforcement officer Kerri Boydell explaining that the council had received a “concern” about a potential “change of use” involving a building on the property. Boydell also confirmed that the council had a record of who submitted the complaint.

Kavanaugh and his wife then showed the official inside a barn on their property, where their daughter had arranged her teddy bears around the table. The makeshift cafe included a stand created by the girl, toy money, and teacups set out for the toys.

The incident comes after Kavanaugh and his wife, Lorraine, were arrested at their home last year following a harassment complaint, according to The Telegraph.

Six police officers reportedly searched the property and seized the couple’s electronic devices, with the arrests taking place in front of their children.

The complaint followed emails the couple sent to Catholic parents and a senior church figure raising concerns about a laicized deacon with previous child-abuse allegations who had celebrated Mass at a private chapel on their property.

The complaint alleged that Kavanaugh had called the man a pedophile on social media and urged followers to “beat him up.” The charges, however, were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Kavanaugh later posted footage of the arrests on X.

“Six police surround myself and my wife and arrest us at home. This is from the police bodycam footage,” he wrote.

“We’re currently taking action against Bedfordshire police for this outrageous arrest” he added. “Myself and my wife were clearly soft targets, not exactly hardened criminals but they handcuffed both anyway …all charges dropped after a couple of months with no apology or explanation. The children were terrorised and they’ll never trust the police again.”