A GAMBLING addict who stole almost £15,000 of inheritance money from his girlfriend's bank account has been jailed for 30 weeks.

The girl had been left £19,500 by her father, which she intended to use to get on the property ladder and set up home with boyfriend Jack Callinan, Gloucester Crown Court heard on Tuesday, October 18.

But Callinan, 20, secretly made almost 300 withdrawals from her account with her bank card and lost it on gambling. Two months ago he was given a 30 week suspended sentence plus 150 hours of unpaid work after admitting 11 charges of fraud, one of theft, one of attempted fraud and asking for 259 offences to be taken into consideration.

But this week, the court heard that Callinan had almost immediately flouted the order and failed to attend work sessions on September 1, 5 and 12 without excuse.

Callinan, of Lime Grove, Belle Vue Road, Stroud, admitted breaching the terms of the order, resulting in the suspended sentence being activated.

Prosecutor James Cranfield said Callinan plundered the account from July last year until April this year.

The girl had received the £19,500 from her father last July, which she intended to use as a deposit on a new home and to buy furniture.

When interviewed by police in May, Callinan said he had been drawing £250 a day from cash machines and making small purchases in shops to get cashback.

"He said the reason he had done it was because of a substantial gambling debts and his addiction to gambling," said Mr Cranfield.

Sabhia Pathan, for the defence, said the couple had been together for four years and were planning a future.

Callinan was made redundant from his job with Dairy Crest and had developed a gambling addiction which he could no longer fund.

He started using money from the girl's account thinking he could repay it with winnings, said Miss Pathan.

The reason he had not gone to the work sessions was that there were people attending the same centre to whom he owed money and he was worried by 'threats' they had made to him, she said.

Callinan 'desperately' wanted to address his gambling problem, which was still afflicting him and causing him to waste all his benefit payments, she added.