A man stole jewellery belonging to his own mother to fund his drug addiction.

Magistrates heard Christine Tillotson, 66, had taken her son Simon Tillotson into her Dalton home.

She had even allowed his curfew monitoring equipment to be installed there following his conviction for an offence but he repaid her by stealing her necklace and earrings and selling them to buy heroin and crack cocaine.

Tillotson, of Helme Lane in Meltham, pleaded guilty to theft when he appeared at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court in custody.

The court was told that the thefts occurred at Mrs Tillotson’s one bedroom flat on December 22.

Alex Bozman, prosecuting, said: “Since December 11 he had been staying with her as a consequence of an order by Bradford Magistrates’ Court.

“This made him subject to an electronically monitored curfew at her address until January 14.”

The court was told that Mrs Tillotson wasn’t initially consulted about this and was concerned that the 42-year-old was taking drugs again.

She then discovered that some money was missing from her flat and confronted Tillotson. He denied the theft but when he left later she found that he had taken a pair of her earrings and a necklace, worth a total of £150.

Mr Bozman said: “He’d taken the jewellery to a second hand shop, got £25 and had spent the money. He said he was a drug addict and a police station drug test was positive for opiates and cocaine.”

Ben Tighe, mitigating, said that his client had been addicted to heroin and crack cocaine since the age of 14.

Mr Tighe said: “He’s started using drugs again which has resulted in him stealing from his own mum.

“He regretted his actions, especially that it’s against his mum who had taken him in.”

Magistrates were told that Tillotson has since tracked down the stolen jewellery and returned it to his mother.

They ordered a report from probation staff before sentencing him