A man who abandoned his two cats when he moved house and claimed they had run away has been banned from keeping animals for five years.

Winston Amos, 43, locked his pets Fluffy and Smudge outside his home in Great Ryburgh, north Norfolk, then moved almost 40 miles away to a new property in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, King's Lynn Magistrates' Court heard.

Jonathan Eales, prosecuting, said a neighbour in Great Ryburgh first called the RSPCA when she saw Mr Amos and his wife Angela, 50, take some property on the bus and leave the cats in the kitchen, though they did return days later.

The RSPCA advised the neighbour to contact them if it happened again.

'Two days later Mr and Mrs Amos left the property and never returned,' said Mr Eales. 'This time they turfed the cats outside and abandoned them.

'The cats were hanging round the front of the house.'

The couple were both charged with two counts of failing to meet the welfare needs of a cat or to protect a cat from suffering as a consequence of being left unattended at a property.

The defendants, whose given address is Osborne Road, Wisbech, did not attend the court hearing.

Mr Amos admitted the offences in a letter sent to the court, in which he said he was 'on his own' at his home in Wisbech.

The case against Mrs Amos was adjourned until November while efforts are made to contact her.

Mr Eales said the neighbour had kept the cats fed and watered while they were locked out, the RSPCA put notices up in case Mr and Mrs Amos returned and inspectors recovered the cats after a week in March 2017.

Inspector Dean Astilberry tracked the couple down to their new address in Wisbech.

'Each of them admitted they were the owners of the two cats, that they had moved and were in a hurry,' said Mr Eales. 'They said the cats ran away just before they left and they didn't come back.'

One of the cats was pregnant and both were suffering from ear mites and a flea infestation.

'They simply abandoned them, presumably hoping they would survive,' said Mr Eales.

'This type of behaviour, unfortunately, has become quite common, with people thinking just because they live outside they can survive.

'That's simply unacceptable.'

In his letter to the court, Mr Amos admitted leaving the cats, said he had suffered from depression and anxiety, had been out of work and had tried to kill himself.

The court heard he had previously left three cats at a property after a house swap but collected them when the woman he had swapped houses with threatened to call the RSPCA.

Chairman of the bench William Hush banned Mr Amos from keeping animals for five years, fined him £440 and ordered £120 costs.

It is understood both cats have been rehomed.