A YORK woman who kept more than 200 snakes at the home she shared with her 93-year-old mother and son could have to pay £93,000 in court costs.

Pauline Wallace, 64, of Osbaldwick Lane, kept the snakes stacked in plastic boxesand vivariums around the house, including the living room, garage and her bedroom.

York Magistrates’ Court heard RSPCA inspectors found the snakes were “living in a level of squalor”, with several dead or dying, and others swimming in a mixture of water and their own waste.

Following a number of improvement notices served by the RSPCA, several snakes had to be taken and put down. In on one inspection, officers found 20 dead snakes and a dead cat in a freezer at the house.

Wallace told officers they were her favourites, and she wanted to keep them until she could “bear to bury them” in her garden.

For the RSPCA, John Boumphrey told the court: “When the RSPCA were there looking at the snakes in quite pitiful conditions, the respondent had just been into town to buy two further snakes, and that indicated someone who was struggling at the time to deal with that many snakes in her control and did not realise she had a problem and seemed compelled to keep acquiring snakes.”

David Ward, for Wallace, said she had been looking after snakes for about 13 years, and had bred a number of the animals.

Wallace’s appearance was a civil matter, and magistrates agreed the RSPCA should take ownership of 72 snakes from the house.

The animals have been housed by the organisation since being removed from Wallace’s home last September, and costs for the investigation and board had reached £92,228.38.

Wallace faces criminal prosecution regarding these matters later this month, and magistrates said costs could only be applied for if she were convicted by the court.