A SINGLE mum who went out stealing to raise cash was today starting a three month jail term.

Burnley magistrates heard how Geraldine Breithaupt, 35, had previously had a heroin addiction and stole to feed it -- but this time was trying to get money to go and visit her sick mother.

Breithaupt, who had turned to drugs after nursing her dying father, was told by the bench she had failed to respond to previous sentences.

The defendant, of Southey Street, Burnley, admitted theft and breach of six community punishment orders imposed for three counts of theft, obstructing a police officer and two counts of failing to surrender.

The court was told Breithaupt had 28 previous convictions, 12 of which were for theft. She helped herself to two pairs of track suit bottoms, worth £30, from a Burnley sports shop.

Trevor Grice, defending, said Breithaupt, mother of a nine year old daughter, had at one time committed petty offences to feed her heroin addiction.

She began her habit in 1997, when she nursed her cancer-stricken father through his dying days. She resorted to using heroin because of the trauma she suffered.

The defendant's mother, who lived in Derby, was now critically ill. Breithaupt committed the offence out of desperation as she had used up all her spare money on train fares for her and her daughter.

She went back to the only way she knew to raise money.

Mr Grice said Breithaupt had taken voluntary steps to overcome her heroin addiction and was now prescribed methadone.

The defendant, who had brought up her daughter on her own, had spent three weeks in custody and the court could defer sentence to put her to the test to see if she would reoffend.