A former pet shop owner who neglected several exotic animals, including two small crocodiles and a Chinese water dragon, has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Bradford magistrates heard that one of the crocodiles, known as Caimans, died from liver disease a few months after being seized by RSPCA officers at the Animal Instincts shop in Shipley in June 2002.

Barry Naylor, 38, of Gwynn Avenue, Thornbury, Bradford, pleaded guilty to four charges of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal by failing to provide it with proper care and attention.

He was sentenced to a total of two months, suspended for a year, and banned from keeping a pet shop, reptiles or tortoises for ten years.

Nigel Monaghan, prosecuting, said the Caimans were kept in the same enclosure without ultra-violet light and were both underweight.

A blue-tongued skink (lizard) was examined by veterinary experts who discovered it had severe conjunctivitis and was blind in one eye, with lesions in the other.

The water dragon had an ulcerated nose and chin and was thin, with protruding pelvic bones. A tortoise was "emaciated almost to the point of death" and suffering from jaundice and shell disease.

Four of the five animals survived and Naylor had since signed them over to the RSPCA to be re-homed, said Mr Monaghan.

Paul Fitzpatrick, for Naylor, said he became a pet shop owner in 1994. It was the first time he had been prosecuted in respect of animal husbandry matters arising out of that business. The shop closed down later in 2002.

At the time of the visit there were 250-300 specimens on the premises, but only five were the subject of complaint.

Mr Fitzpatrick said an independent expert had stated that nose and chin injuries in water dragons were quite common, as when startled they would run into the glass walls of their enclosures. Naylor had been led to understand the skink had an untreatable eye complaint and was blind.