Newcastle woman duped by puppy smugglers

Nici Conway gave £750 to two students in Preston for what she thought was a pedigree French Bulldog. She became suspicious when the dog's sellers wouldn't send her the animal's documents.

On taking the puppy, Cyril, to the vet, it emerged that the dog had been smuggled from Lithuania and was only six weeks old - a very young age for a puppy to be separated from its mother. The dog then had to be quarantined for seven weeks at a cost of around £1,500.

Nici told Good Morning Britain about the events leading up to Cyril being taken away from her.

The revelations followed a campaign by The Dog's Trust to highlight the issue of puppy smuggling from Eastern Europe. They managed to smuggle a toy dog through passport control with a fake passport and microchip.

A second investigation also found that some breeders from Lithuania and Romania are supplying puppies under twelve weeks of age - the legal age they can be vaccinated against rabies.

Cyril was one such dog and posed a health risk to humans and other dogs - which was why he had to be quarantined.

Nici gave advice to people thinking of buying a puppy: make sure you buy from a reputable breeder and go to see the puppy with its mother.