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A woman with an "absolute adoration of cats" has been fined £2,395 for trying to smuggle three into the UK  according to press reports.

Jennifer Briggs (39) was stopped and arrested at Dover's Eastern Docks on October 13 after animal welfare officers received an anonymous tip-off that she was smuggling cats.

She admitted three counts of unlawfully landing an animal at Dover Port at Canterbury Crown Court last week.

Judge Timothy Nash told her: "You are not just irresponsible, you are utterly selfish.

"To satisfy your own obsession about cats, you quite happily tried to bypass the important quarantine rules you know exist.

"The fact it has cost you money serves you jolly well right and it's going to cost you more money and that's the price you will have to pay."

The court heard that Briggs, formerly of South Fen Road, Bourne, had one Sphinx cat with a microchip and passport which did not relate to it and two rare Kohona cats.

Daniel Jerome, mitigating, said Briggs had an "absolute adoration" for cats and had owned Sphinx cats for years and she desperately wanted a Kohona – of which there are only 22 in the world because they don't breed well.

He said Briggs, now of Bedfordshire, could not wait to go through the lengthy process to import the cats so short-circuited things by smuggling them in.

She flew the cats from America to Germany, where they were driven to France.

The Kohonas cost her £2,500, there was no fee for the Sphinx, and the quarantine bill would be about £4,500.