A woman who sold puppies but never delivered them was sentenced to home detention in Dannevirke District Court on Friday.
Georja Renee Watts, 40, had 109 previous convictions for fraud and has a history of dishonesty and non-compliance, the court was told.
Her latest offending dated to September last year when she advertised puppies for sale, but once she had the money, she cut off all contact with the buyers and never delivered them.
"Whether they existed or not, no one seems to know," Judge Jonathan Krebs said.
She claimed she had been selling the puppies on behalf of someone else.