A "RUTHLESS and selfish" drug addict who stole his elderly parents' £9,000 savings and milked his mother's bank account has been imprisoned for 16 months.

Lee Huxham, 36, took the money the couple planned to use to buy a mobility scooter and pay for funeral expenses, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Huxham, of St Paul's Road, Manningham, Bradford, helped his almost blind and partially deaf father to count the £10,000 nest egg, kept in a security box at the family home, before helping himself to most of it.

He spent the cash on paying his drug dealer and buying more heroin and crack cocaine, prosecutor Philip Adams said.

Huxham pleaded guilty to stealing £9,000, between July 23 and August 20, and using his mother's bank card to take £835 from her account.

The court heard he made 23 visits to cash machines to steal the money.

Mr Adams said that Huxham's 78-year-old father was 90 per cent blind and partially deaf.

His mother, 66, also had hearing problems.

Huxham, a long-standing drug addict, would stay at their flat to help out.

Shortly before he raided the security box, he helped his father to count out the couple's savings, leaving the box insecure so he could return to help himself.

On August 19, his mother realised money had been stolen from a cash jar and when she checked the security box, she found all but £1,000 gone.

Huxham was confronted by his mother and admitted the offences. He told police he used the money to pay off a drug debt and to buy more Class A drugs.

Judge Peter Benson told Huxham: "It is difficult to conceive of a more callous piece of stealing. It was a dreadful breach of the trust imposed in you by your parents.

"These are dreadful, ruthless and selfish offences."