PETS owned by a woman now barred from keeping animals for a decade have been taken into the care of the RSPCA.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Charmaine Collins, 28, let scores of animals die in her Boscombe flat over the course of at least a week.

The defendant, who is now of no fixed abode but previously lived in Hamilton Road, admitted six charges relating to the care of the animals last month. On Monday, she was sentenced to a 12-month community order and told she cannot keep any animal for 10 years.

An application to transfer the care of three dogs, two cats and two birds to the RSPCA was also granted by District Judge Stephen Nicholls. The pets, which include a Bernese mountain dog called Ollie and two poodles called Cody and Lady, had been cared for by a friend.

Collins had 196 animals, including chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils and ducks, inside her two-bed flat and a shed outside. Some 61 died.

Prosecutors said the creatures had been "abandoned" without food and water in an "appalling environment".

The defendant had trained as a veterinary nurse.