A MOTHER installed CCTV at her home after a number of thefts by her drug addicted son, a court heard.

Kevin Heaney was jailed for 20 months at Teesside Crown Court after he was seen on camera taking £30 from a chest of drawers at his mother’s home, where he was staying following his release from jail.

The court was told that the 33-year-old, of Cambridge Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, had been addicted to drugs since the age of 15 and had stolen thousands of pounds from his parents with things frequently going missing from their home.

In a letter to Judge Michael Taylor, the defendant’s mother said: “We have put up with this for years and years and now I am at the end of my tether.”

Duncan Mochrie, mitigating, said: “It is a very sad tale. He accepts he has betrayed his mother’s trust and he has only himself to blame for the predicament he finds himself in.”

He added: “Effectively he was using his mother as a piggy bank. He had access to the property and took advantage of it.”

Judge Taylor said it was a particularly mean and nasty offence. He told Heaney: “Your parents have tried to support you and put a roof over your head.

“There comes a time when you have to accept responsibility for what you have done. It was a mean and petty offence.”

Heaney, who admitted burglary on September 4 this year, had 15 previous convictions. He was jailed for 20 months, which included an eight-month long jail sentence previously suspended on him, which was activated by the judge.