A WOMAN who plundered her 94-year-old gran's life savings to fund a life of holidays and gambling has been jailed for two years and four months.

Kelly Stevens used the old lady's bank card as if it were her own, eventually 'cleaning out' the account and leaving her overdrawn at Christmas.

And the four year fraud has left the heart broken pensioner's family shattered as she got another granddaughter, who is a bookkeeper, to look into what was going on.

The 37-year-old first abused the plastic to buy herself Easy Jet flights and even when police were investigating, she went on a trip to Las Vegas.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how Stevens started helping her grandma with her shopping and money in October 2012.

She would visit every Thursday and get her food and any cash if she needed to pay the chiropodist or someone who helped clean her house.

Last Christmas she said she was concerned about her account being overdrawn, though Stevens told her it was nothing to worry about.

But she asked another granddaughter to investigate and she uncovered an array of purchases which the victim had not made.

As well as money being spent on gambling sites she also found air tickets, payments to clothes company Asos and Groupon.

"The financial situation became so bad that Mrs Stevens had nothing to eat but crackers, biscuits, as she had no money," Miss Hingston said.

She told the court that while £77,000 had left the account she had won £65,000 gambling, mitigating the losses.

And when she was questioned Stevens suggested that one of her cousins, who has learning difficulties, may have been responsible for using the card.

In a victim personal statement the pensioner told how she would have helped out the defendant if she had come to her with a gambling or money problems.

She said: "I can't tell you how much this situation is breaking my heart but I need to, because I want the courts to understand how much Kelly has torn my world apart.

"She would shop for me, buy food for me, get cash for me. I struggle to walk and move freely. For years I was in the dark about what Kelly was doing.

"I couldn't understand how my granddaughter had taken all my life savings and carry on as if nothing had happened, and keep it from me.

"My family was torn apart and I was devastated. What I hate most about what happened is Kelly has pulled my family apart, completely in two.

"She has broken my family and she has broken my heart".

Stevens, of Corfe Road, Toothill, admitted fraud, pocketing £26,600 between the start of October 2012 and the end of last year.

Sam Arif, defending, said although she accepted stealing from her gran when she was questioned it was suggested she took about £50,000.

She said she was using the cash for her 'day to day' living, and funding her gambling habit, and the trip to Vegas was a pre booked family holiday with her dad.

Jailing her Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "For about four years you used her bank card as if it were your own.

"She authorised you to use it for some purposes but quite obviously not to the extent you did use it.

"You took gross advantage of a very vulnerable lady and you knew it. Eventually the account was emptied and it became overdrawn and a great deal of the money you had already stolen you spent on high living including holidays and gambling."