A woman who ran an illegal pet shop from her London flat, selling smuggled designer puppies, has been ordered to pay out thousands of pounds.

Sonata Sakalauskaite sold French bulldog puppies for £650 each on online sites such as Gumtree after they were illegally brought into Britain from her native Lithuania by couriers.

She was prosecuted for breaking animal welfare laws after officials raided her home in Southfields.

During the first raid, officers found five French bulldogs aged between eight and 10 weeks’ old in a pen in her front room. On another occasion they found more puppies hidden behind a piano. Neighbours said there had been an almost constant stream of puppies arriving and leaving the property.

The Dogs Trust has previously warned that the illegal pet trade is out of control, with breeders making £100,000 from the sale of smuggled puppies. It said dealers were taking advantage of a trend for “fashionable” dogs, importing French bulldogs, chihuahuas, poodle crosses, pugs and toy terriers. The breeders are exploiting legislation designed for the transportation of family pets to bring puppies into Britain on a commercial scale.

Sakalauskaite’s business was discovered in a joint investigation by the City of London Corporation and Wandsworth Council. Officers found the puppies had entered the country with forged pet passports, which claimed the animals had been given rabies injections.

However, they were under the legal transportation age of 15 weeks, which meant they were too young to have been removed from their mothers and not old enough for the injections to be effective.

When interviewed, Sakalauskaite admitted selling two French bulldog puppies for about £650 and confirmed the pups were born in Lithuania.

She claimed she had given up the business, but officials found evidence she was still selling puppies while under investigation.

The 36-year-old did not attend a hearing at Lavender Hill magistrates’ court and was found guilty in her absence under the Pet Animals Act to selling puppies without a licence.

Sakalauskaite was fined £550 and ordered to pay £5,800 in costs. Wandsworth councillor Jonathan Cook said: “Our investigation showed that Miss Sakalauskaite was effectively running a commercial pet shop from her property without a licence and this is illegal.

“The scale of her business operation showed that the health and wellbeing of these young dogs was being put at risk, not to mention the wider public health implications of what she was doing.”

Deborah Bradfield, animal health inspector for the City of London Corporation, said: “She turned out to be more prolific than most people we deal with. We warned her in a strongly-worded letter but she continued to sell them.”

Pictured: One of the smuggled French Bulldogs that Sonata Sakalauskaite was trying to sell.