A DRUG addict stole �900 from her mother to pay for heroin, Huntingdon magistrates heard.

Jodie Taylor’s mother used her debit card at a garden centre in Sandy on November 8 and went to use it again the following day at a vets when she discovered it was missing.

John Nooijen, prosecuting, said Taylor had gone into her mothers’s house on November 9 and had taken the card.

In the next two days Taylor, of Springbrook, Eynesbury, went to a petrol station in King’s Lane, St Neots, and used the car to pay for �70 petrol.

The 31-year-old also withdrew �900 from a Barclays cash machine in St Neots, which she admitted in her police interview was to pay for heroin, the court was told on Thursday (December 13).

Mr Nooijen added that Taylor went back to the garden centre and dropped the card, knowing it would be found by staff and returned to her mother, who checked her statement and found that it had been used.

Lorraine Adams, defending, said for the last 18 months Taylor had a heroin addiction, and that she had already been to see Addaction to sort her addiction out.

“Taylor and her mother have a good relationship but over the last year it has not gone so well, due to the addiction,” Miss Adams told the court.

“She is very ashamed to be here. It seems to be a one-off action and she made steps to return the card to her mother to try and right what she had done.

“She knows that she won’t be ordered to pay the full amount back due to court limits but is adamant that she pays back the loss suffered by her mother.”

The court heard that this was Taylor’s first conviction.

Taylor admitted fraud by false representation and was given a 24-month conditional discharge, and ordered to pay �500 compensation, �40 costs and �15 victim surcharge.