LONDON — Becky Parsons was in a taxi from Birmingham Airport when her mother called to give her the bad news: The daughter’s two dogs had gone missing.

Before traveling to Spain for a vacation, Ms. Parsons had left them in the care of a licensed dog sitter whom she had previously trusted with her pets. But this time around the sitter replied to text messages only “hours and hours later,” she said. And when Ms. Parsons’ mother went to pick up the dogs, the sitter said told her that the animals had disappeared during a walk in the woods.

When her mother relayed the news, Ms. Parsons recalled, “Absolute panic washed over me.”

On Thursday, Birmingham Magistrates’ Court disqualified the sitter, Louise Lawford, 49, from having custody of a dog for five years and fined her nearly 3,500 pounds (more than $4,500) over animal welfare offenses. Although those offenses did not cover the dogs’ disappearance, the sentencing brought partial closure in a case that has prompted anger and sadness in Britain, even in the absence of criminal charges against her.

Image Pablo Credit... Becky Parsons

The case had been brought by Birmingham City Council, which accused her of nine animal welfare offenses, including having too many dogs in her care at one time. The BBC reported last week that her dog-sitting license was also revoked after the dogs went missing.