A woman has been ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work after starving her dogs.

Leigh Lynch had admitted on July 1 to not providing sufficient food to her German shepherd, Lady, and mastiff Stella.

At Croydon Magistrates’ Court on September 20, the 39-year was sentenced to a community order and banned from keeping any animal for the next four years.

Lynch, of Gorse Road in Croydon, was also ordered to pay £500 costs.

Inspector Dale Grant, from the RSPCA who brought the charges, said: "These dogs were very clearly underweight and that would have been obvious to anyone who saw them.

"The owner should have sought help to care for her dogs and not simply left them neglected and hungry. There is no excuse."