Exotic pet fanatic Barry Naylor is fast becoming a troubleshooter for holidaymakers bringing home deadly creatures in their luggage.

The owner of Art Gecko Exotic Pet Centre in Westgate, Shipley, came to the rescue when two West Yorkshire sisters, Carole Kendal and Janet Marshall, returned from Tobago with a poisonous scorpion in their bag.

The pair found it hidden in a shell they had bought on a West Indian beach and were horrified when Barry said it could have killed them if they had been stung.

But dealing with killer creepy crawlies is an everyday thing for the married father-of-four.

During the summer months he gets calls each week from holidaymakers who have unknowingly brought home spiders, scorpions and lizards from foreign climes. He takes them off their hands and finds them suitable homes. And he is currently in talks with Edinburgh Zoo, trying to find somewhere for the two-inch, killer scorpion.

"I love my job," said Barry, 34, who was born and brought up in Bradford. "There's not many people who get to do their hobby for their job.

"I get loads of calls in the summer from people who have unexpected guests in their suitcases. Most of the time it's just harmless cockroaches and scorpions but sometimes they can be killers."

His shop, which he says is the only specialist shop between Essex and Newcastle, provides homes for spiders such as black widows, deadly scorpions, snakes, cockroaches and lizards.

"I remember when a couple of guys from Doncaster came back from America with two Cadillacs. They were planning on doing them up but when they opened the bonnets there was literally hundreds of black widow spiders crawling around. It could have been fatal.''