A DANGEROUS robber locked up for nine years had squandered the £96,000 he received in compensation for the tragic death of his mother.

Scott Cross spent all the money fuelling his addictions, his barrister Abigail Langford told Bradford Crown Court.

Cross, 34, who threatened a pensioner with a hammer while plundering his home, was the only child of a woman who died in 2003.

His 38-year-mum fell into a coma after she suffered an allergic reaction to penicillin while being treated at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Miss Langford told the court on Tuesday that Cross had a tragic early life and had been left “completely institutionalised”, after lengthy spells in custody, dating from when he was a teenager.

The court heard he had 26 convictions for 68 offences. In 2012, he was jailed for six years for the gang robbery of a man in his home.

Miss Langford said Cross was in jail when his mother died and “felt safer” in prison.

She told the court on Tuesday that Cross’s mother died after suffering an allergic reaction to penicillin.

“He spent the £96,000 he received in compensation for her death funding his addictions,” Miss Langford said.

It was a measure of Cross’s damaged life and vulnerability that, although he left prison with “a full bank account,” his depression and addiction problems continued.

Cross was labelled a danger to the public by the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, after he admitted a spate of robberies.

He was jailed for nine years with a five-year extended licence.

“If this goes on, you will face life imprisonment,” the judge told him.

Prosecutor Ben Thomas told how Cross struck five times in a week while on prison licence, twice targeting his then girlfriend Sherie North’s grandfather.

North, 23, wept in the dock as she was spared jail for accompanying Cross on two robberies and one attempted robbery.

Cross, of Wharncliffe Crescent, Eccleshill, Bradford, robbed Richard Biller of a phone and a silver chain at The Private Shop on Manningham Lane in the city, on September 26 and October 3.

He grappled with Mr Biller in his shop, threatening to hit him with a brick, before making off with his phone. Seven days later, he and North robbed Mr Biller of his silver chain and £80 from the shop till.

Cross robbed Liam Walsh of his mountain bike on October 2 and twice targeted North’s grandfather, John Horvath. He and North pushed past Mr Horvath at his Incommunities flat at 11am on September 29.

Cross brandished a hammer near his face, saying: “If you don’t give me the money and the jewellery, I am going to hurt you.”

Cross tipped up the pensioner’s bed, throwing him to the floor, and North shouted that she had “got the stuff,” the court heard.

The pair fled in a taxi with jewellery and £160 in cash.

A neighbour discovered Mr Horvath in a distressed state. His bed was upturned, his home ransacked and there was broken glass and a hammer on the floor.

Cross and North returned to Mr Horvath’s flat on October 3, pretending to be from Incommunities to gain entry. Cross pushed him over, demanding: “Where’s the money?” He hit him in the face and again tipped his bed over while he was on it.

Mr Horvath pulled the emergency cord and the couple fled empty-handed.

Mr Thomas said the pensioner had recently come out of hospital after an operation on his legs and was struggling to walk. He now felt unsafe in his home.

Solicitor advocate John Bottomley said North, of Harden Grove, Ravenscliffe, Bradford, was in a relationship with Cross and under his influence She had sought help with her drug addiction and was a very different person from her co-accused.

The judge told North: “You were with that violent, damaged, man, capable of behaving like a monster, very frightening.”

North had spent two months in custody and had the support of her parents.

She was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement, a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a six-month curfew.