A WOMAN ran up thousands of pounds of debt on her mum's credit card while she recovered from a stroke in hospital, York Magistrates’ Court heard.

Rebecca Muir, 34, moved out of York after her fraud was discovered and is now estranged from her mother, her solicitor Helen Sabiston said.

But the mother, who is also a grandmother and who attended court in a wheelchair, told district judge Adrian Lower through prosecutor Simon Ostler she still loved her daughter very much and always will love her.

“There is nothing more important than family,” said Mr Ostler, quoting the mother.

Muir, now of Errington Street, Brotton near Saltburn, pleaded guilty to obtaining £1,598.42 by fraud through using her mother’s bank card between May 26, 2015, and March 17, 2016.

“You were in a position of trust regarding your mother, you knew she was ill, you knew she trusted you,” the district judge told a weeping Rebecca Muir.

“This was very low. You are perhaps very lucky you have a mother who is prepared to put this behind her in due course.”

Mother and daughter left court separately.

Muir was given a 12-month community order with 10 days’ rehabilitative activities, fined £200 and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 statutory charge.

Mr Ostler said the mother was admitted to York Hospital in December 2015 with a stroke and spent two months there, most of it in a specialist ward.

On her return home, she discovered that her credit card balance had shot up to over £7,000 while she had been in hospital and someone had taken £1,598.10 from her bank account. She contacted her bank’s fraud department and in due course her daughter was arrested. The bank refunded the £1,598.

The district judge said Rebecca Muir was lucky she had not been charged in relation to the credit card.

Mrs Sabiston said the daughter was ashamed and remorseful. She had been allowed to use her mother’s bank cards for basic essentials as she was in financial trouble.

But when her mother had been in hospital, she had had to give up her job to look after her ill daughter, things had got on top of her and she had turned to gambling as a source of relief. The gambling had spiralled out of control and she had misused the bank cards.