Church fined over £500,000 after case brought by former members who were pressured into handing over money

Two flagship branches of the Church of Scientology in France have been sentenced to pay fines of over €600,000 (£550,000) after being convicted of "fraud in an organised gang" today by a court in Paris.

The judgment against the Scientology Celebrity Centre and a related bookshop in Paris is one of the most important to involve the controversial organisation in recent years.

The judges stopped short of the total ban the prosecution had called for, so the church will be allowed to continue its activities in France where it is estimated to have 45,000 members.

Four officials of the church in France received suspended prison sentences of between 18 months and two years as well as fines ranging from €5,000 to €30,000.

Judges said that the four had avoided jail in part because of "efforts by the [church] to change its practices". An appeal is expected.

The case was brought by two female former members who alleged that they were pressured into paying large sums of money to the church after joining in the 1990s. They also alleged that members of the church had harassed them to buy a variety of products including vitamins and to sign up for "purification" courses costing thousands of euros. One said she had been advised by a financial adviser from the church to take out a large loan to finance her activities within the organisation.

Prosecutors had at one point requested that the group be dissolved in France and be fined €4m. However, last month it was revealed that an obscure modifiction of French law meant that courts no longer have the power to dissolve organisations found guilty of fraud.

The news sparked controversy forcing the minister of justice, Michèle Alliot-Marie, to explain the change on television. Lawyers representing those who brought the current case alleged that scientologists had infiltrated the national assembly.

Defence lawyers for the church have called for the debate to be reopened to "wash" their clients of any suspicion. The church denies all wrongdoing.

Scientology was founded by the science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard in 1954 and claims to have 12 million followers worldwide. A series of cases against them has led the Church of Scientology to complain of a "climate of hatred" and a state-sponsored "inquisition" against them in France. Scientology was described as a "sect" rather than a religion in an official French report in 1995.