A DRUG dealer who stole his parents’ life savings in order to fund an out-of-control gambling addiction has been jailed.

Lee Bumby took £20,000 from the family home and frittered it away on trips to the casino, bookmakers and playing slot machines.

Remarkably, despite bringing untold misery on his family, his mother had continued to stand by him and was present when he was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court.

Bumby, 24, of Topcliffe Common, Topcliffe, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, also had what was described as a “significant” involvement in dealing cocaine, despite not taking the drug himself.

Police found text messages on his phone relating to dealing and a list of 15 names, individuals who were buying drugs from him.

Profits from this were also used to fund his gambling habit.

The court heard how Bumby also racked up more than a thousand pounds in unpaid parking fines after outstaying the time he was allotted in parking bays outside his favourite bookmakers.

Katy Dunn, mitigating, said: “His mother still gives him her support, although his father threw him out of the house when the money was stolen.

“For the past year he has kept out of trouble and he is trying to address his gambling addiction.”

The barrister said it was impossible to ascertain how much money Bumby had made from drug dealing as all the money he received was used for gambling.

Bumby, who has a previous conviction for stealing scrap metal in a burglary, admitted possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possessing criminal property over a period stretching from June 11 2014 to January 26 last year.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton described him as an “utterly selfish” young man.

He told Bumby: “You were consistently stealing from your parents such was the level of your dishonesty and the abuse of their trust.

“Your mother is still prepared to stand by you even though you have put her through utter misery and there will be more to come.”

Judge Bourne-Arton said he could reduce the sentence on Bumby because of the mitigating circumstances Ms Dunn had advanced on his behalf and because of his guilty plea.

He was jailed for two years, eight months in total.