A 24-year-old woman who bred fighting dogs at her Wolverhampton home and sold them for up to £300 each has escaped being sent to jail.

Katie Hill ran up a £33,000 bill in veterinary costs and kennel boarding fees after the dangerous animals were taken from her, the city’s magistrates court was told. But she was ordered to repay just £1,000, because she is unemployed and lives on benefits.

District Judge Michael Wheeler added the costs soared because Hill failed to plead guilty until the day of her trial last week.

Twelve dogs had been kept in kennels following the raid in January on her home in Filey Road, Bushbury. Hill admitted breeding a litter of 10 puppies from two adult dogs.

Jane Yeomans, prosecuting, told of how a drugs warrant had been executed at the address and a small amount of cocaine found, along with three pitbull-type dogs and five puppies which were seized.

Hill, who was fined £500 for the drugs offence at a previous hearing, had told police in interview that she sold the animals for between £200 and £300 each.

A bitch was heavily pregnant and went on to have five more puppies, the court heard. Another of the dogs was found not to be a pitbull and released.

Mrs Yeomans said: “Several of the puppies did not survive and the rest of the animals were put down at a cost of £600.”

Tim Burton-Webb, defending, claimed Hill did not realise the dogs were pitbulls.

He said: “They are not a breed but a type of dog and it is not easy to identify them.”

The dogs were described as being healthy and well cared for with none of the tell-tale shoulder and muzzle scars often seen on fighting dogs, he added.

Hill, who cares for her partner’s two children while he is in prison, had been warned she could face time behind bars for breeding the illegal litters in what the judge described as a “commercial operation.”

Instead she was given an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work. She was also banned from keeping dogs for 10 years and given a 12-month supervision order.