When RSPCA officer Inspector Mike Harley found Butch the old dachshund in a neighbour's garden in Willow Green, New Malden, on December 29 last year, it was already dead. Its fur was sodden with near-freezing water and it was plastered with mud.

Housewife Patricia Teefey of 25 Windrush, New Malden, owned Butch for 14 years but had asked her estranged husband, Michael Teefey, 40, of 31 Leinster Avenue, East Sheen, to look after the dog while she went home to Ireland for Christmas.

But Kingston Magistrates Court heard on Monday that Butch died after being left outside when temperatures dropped below freezing.

Another, younger, dog was found alive and well at the address.

Both dogs were used to a kennel in a garage. But the family had moved and the kennel was found wet, with no bedding and a bowl of dirty water.

A post mortem found Butch in "good working condition" but his fur sodden wet, and that he died of hypothermia.

Carl Woolf, prosecuting said: "It is only fair to say that the society doesn't take the view this was a case where the dog was caused unnecessary suffering deliberately. It was due to a lack of care."

Defending, David Purcell, said that Butch was kept outside because he was incontinent.

He explained that Mr Teefey had been away from Tuesday evening to 7pm on Wednesday, the day Butch died.

"Unfortunately the one night of the period he stayed away happened to be one of the coldest nights of the year," he said.

Magistrates took into account the pair's guilty plea to causing unnecessary suffering, fined them £400 each, ordered them to pay RSPCA costs of £336 each and disqualified them from owning a dog for two years.

The other dog was given to RSPCA care because he needed constant company.