A MEAN thief who stole almost £10,000 from his 75-year-old disabled grandma and blew it on cocaine, is facing jail.

Burnley magistrates heard how addict Michael Wilson, 31, used victim Maureen Wilson's bank card 43 times to help himself to the cash.

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He claimed Mrs Wilson, who lives in Nelson, had given him her PIN number, but she was adamant she didn't.

The victim only found out she was being fleeced when she went out shopping one day and didn't have enough money in her account to pay for it.

The hearing was told how Wilson, now said to be at risk of self-harm, handed himself into police. There was no prospect of the money being recovered.

Wilson, currently of no fixed address, admitted theft of £9,537, which he took between August and October.

The defendant was committed in custody to the crown court to be sentenced on November 21, after the chairman said the bench's powers of punishment for the breach of trust offence were not sufficient. Wilson, who was living on the streets before he went to the police, had no previous convictions.

Prosecutor Andrew Robinson said Wilson spent some time living at his grandmother's. She would say she would never have given him her PIN number and doesn't know how he got it.

The defendant was wanted by police, found out and handed himself in. He told officers he used the money to fund his cocaine habit.

Krystal Savoy, defending Wilson, said he handed himself in because he felt awful about what happened.

She said: “He handed himself in because he had done wrong.”

In interview, he was full and frank with police and admitted the offence. The solicitor said: “All his actions have been motivated by remorse.” Miss Savoy said the defendant was very clear that, because of his grandmother's condition, his father would normally have access to the card and PIN number to assist her. She fell out with his father and she provided it her grandson to assist.

When the PIN number was offered to him, he didn't want to take that responsibility. He would take the card, withdraw the money and put the card back.

The solicitor said Wilson had had the addiction for some years, but he lost his job and had had no income and had been struggling.

Miss Savoy continued: “This is somebody who can be worked with to tackle what is really lying behind his offending behaviour, which is his addiction.”