FACED with a drugs debt from prison a man stole a debit card that his mother was keeping safe for another man needing care.

Brett Armstrong admitted stealing the NatWest debit card which was in his mother's care and emptying the account and running up an overdraft.

The 31-year-old of Nindum Road came before magistrates sitting in Swindon on Monday morning to be sentenced for the offences of theft of £1937.87 and fraud by false representation between February 2 and February 9 of this year.

Crown prosecutor Michelle Hewitt told the court the account Armstrong had targeted belonged to a man who was in receipt of care benefit. But as he had not yet appointed a carer he had given his debit card, chequebook and all of the relevant paperwork to the defendant's mother for safekeeping while the monthly payments of £640.10 were paid in. The victim had known both the defendant and his mother for around eight years.

But when he received a statement saying that not only was the account now empty, but also overdrawn, he confronted the defendant’s mother.

“It was clear that it had the victim’s name on the card and it was clear who it belonged to,” said Ms Hewitt. “NatWest refunded the money to the victim after it was reported.”

She explained that Armstrong had previous convictions for similar offences in 2004 when he stole from his mother and again in 2010 when he stole a colleague’s bank card to pay for a holiday.

Defending him, Philip Hall said that he owed money to a man he had met in prison: “He was naïve enough to believe that when he came out of prison that drug debt was something he could forget about and forget about he did until someone came out of prison much later than he did and made it clear that the debt needed to be paid. It wasn’t a problem initially as he had employment, but then he found himself laid off.”

Sentencing him, chairman of the bench Geoff Earl told Armstrong that he considered the breach of trust – combined with his previous record – meant his sentence had crossed the custody threshold and jailed him for 12 weeks for the fraud charge and two weeks concurrently for the theft. “However we have recognised the degree of remorse that you have shown and the speed with which you have pleaded guilty makes a significant difference,” he said. “We are going to reflect your early guilty plea in your sentence.

“This sentence will be suspended for a period of 12 months. On the condition that you are not convicted of any other offence in the next 12 months. We are not intending to impose any other punishment. That will be hanging over your head for the next 12 months.”

He must also pay the full amount back to NatWest, a victim surcharge of £120 and court costs of £85 and work with the probation service to complete the thinking skills programme.