A Wood Green pet shop owner has been made to pay a £500 fine for the most grave crime of all, selling a hamster without a license.

Nancy Maxwell, owner of Animal Kingdom in Wood Green's Shopping City, traded in live animals despite being refused a license to keep a pet shop in 2005. Ms Maxwell was caught last year when an undercover trading standards officer was sold a hamster at the shop.

In court, Ms Maxwell said shop staff had sold the hamster by mistake and the animals were just there "to attract people to the shop".

Certainly an interesting defence, full points for inventiveness.

The hamster, named Scamper, "lived out the remainder of his life in a loving home" and has recently gone to the big hamster ball in the sky.