A couple have been banned from keeping reptiles for five years after admitting being responsible for 17 of their 18 geckos dying.
Catherine and Tom Wyvern, of Melford Road, Stowmarket, were sentenced at West Suffolk Magistrates Court in Bury St Edmunds.
They had each previously pleaded guilty before Ipswich magistrates to two charges of failing in their responsibility to ensure the welfare of an animal, and two charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
The offences involved a lack of adequate heat and suitable diet.
In addition to his disqualification from keeping reptiles Tom Wyvern was sentenced to a 12-month community order with a 60-hour unpaid work requirement.
Wyvern, who turned 33 on the day of his sentencing, must also pay a total of £710 in court costs, a criminal courts charge and a levy for the victims’ fund.
His wife was given a 12-month conditional discharge as well as her banning order.
She must pay a total of £665 which includes court costs, a criminal courts charges and a levy for the victims’ fund.
After the couple entered their guilty pleas before Ipswich magistrates Inspector Chris Nice, of the RSPCA, said: “These geckos were just left in an empty house to die.
“No provision was made to feed or water them or care for them in any way – so they were just left on their own to suffer a slow lingering death.”
Prosecutor Hugh Rowland told the court the charges involved the neglect of 18 gecko leopard lizards between May 17 and June 22.
On June 23 Insp Nice went to the former home of the Wyverns in Fairfield Hill, Stowmarket, where he was let in by a council housing officer.
Insp Nice had described an awful smell of decay, with rotting food, rubbish bags and soiled nappies inside the property.
Seventeen of the 18 geckos had died and were in various states of decay and the containers in which they were kept were full of flies, magistrates heard.
The lizard which survived was said to have been dehydrated and its body weight was about a third of what it should have been. It has since recovered and been re-homed.
In an interview with the RSPCA Tom Wyvern, who accepted he was responsible for looking after them although his 39-year-old wife owned them, said he should have moved them to their new home.
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