A couple who ran an illegal pet shop from their home smuggled dogs from Eastern Europe, passed them off as pedigree hounds and kept sick and dying animals in harrowing conditions.

The lucrative sales and breeding enterprise run by Laura Kiselova-Tite, 36, and her 34-year-old husband Raimondas Titas, profited from animal misery.

The couple sold at least 500 ‘designer’ dogs and Persian cats for around £800 at time from their Prestwich home before being brought down by the RSPCA and Salford’s council’s Trading Standards team.

Details of how the pair duped the public - and the distressing fate of animals they imported - emerged as they admitted fraud and animal welfare offences at Manchester Crown Court . It is expected that they will be sentenced next month.

The prosecution came after complaints from customers who had been sold poorly animals, plus concerns raised by the authorities in Dover, where the animals entered the country with false ‘European Pet Passport’ details.

The investigation revealed that the couple’s business - Pets 313 Ltd - marketed pugs and French bulldogs online as ‘Kennel Club registered’ to unsuspecting buyers.

In reality, the puppies had been imported illegally from Lithuania and Hungary, many when they were too young to travel, and without the vaccinations required by law, creating the risk of rabies spreading.

Raimondas Titas and Laura Kiselova-Tite

When the RSPCA raided the pair’s home at Green Hill, Prestwich, they found animals suffering from a variety of illnesses. In total, 41 dogs and eight cats had to be removed - including a heavily pregnant French bulldog.

The dogs and cats had conjunctivitis and were underweight, were riddled with skin infections and ringworm, wracked with kennel cough and flu, weakened by gastroenteritis, and kept in cramped, barren and unsanitary pens and cages.

Instead of taking them to the vet, the couple tried to treat them at home with drugs they had brought over from their native Lithuania.

Two of the pups removed from the property later died, despite vet treatment.

The grim picture uncovered by the investigation - codenamed ‘Operation Wolf’ - was a far cry from the image the couple presented to buyers.

Animal lovers thought they were buying dogs bred in the UK who were properly insured and sired from pedigree lines. In reality the dogs were bred overseas and brought into the country by the couple fiddling the European Pet Passport scheme.

Customers were left saddled with expensive care bills or dying pets, and when they sought redress from the business the couple simply refused to help.

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At a Manchester Crown Court hearing Kiselova-Tite admitted fraudulent trading, keeping a pet shop without a licence, keeping a dog breeding establishment without a licence, four charges of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and three charges of failing to ensure the welfare of an animal. As she entered her pleas with the help of an interpreter, she said: “I’m guilty, but I didn’t know.”

Her husband Titas admitted insurance fraud, fraudulent trading, keeping a dog breeding establishment without a licence, four charges of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and three charges of failing to ensure the welfare of an animal.

All the offences they admitted were committed between 2012 and 2013.

Animals sold by Pets 313 Ltd are also believed to have come from Poland, Latvia and Belarus. The European Pet Passport scheme is intended for pet owners who are moving within the EU and want to take their animals with them - not for commercial purposes.

An RSPCA spokesperson said: “It was obvious that this duo were dealing and trading in a large number of animals and that many of them were not receiving the appropriate care and veterinary attention they needed. During our investigation, most of the animals were signed over into RSPCA care and later rehomed.”

Councillor David Lancaster, Salford’s lead member for environment and community safety, said the agencies in the case had uncovered ‘fraudulent and deceitful activities from a couple indifferent to any suffering they may have caused’.