A Suffolk civil servant stole £15,000 from bank accounts belonging to his 85-year-old mother who suffered from dementia and spent the money on sex chat lines and luxuries, a court has heard.

Jailing 54-year-old Ian Young for 16 months Judge Rupert Overbury said he had committed the offences out of “pure greed and selfishness.”

“The only person to have suffered is a lady who no doubt has spent a good deal of her life looking after you and this is how you repaid her,” said the judge Young, of West Road, Bury St Edmunds admitted two offences of fraud between May 2012 and September 2013.

Catherine Bradshaw, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court said that in February 2011 Young’s mother was assessed as not having the mental capacity to make decisions due to her dementia and went to live in a home.

In April 2012 Young was cautioned by police after it was discovered he had taken £4,000 from one of his mother’s bank accounts to repay a telephone sex chat line bill.

Five weeks later Young had taken his mother from her care home to her bank and got her to sign a form authorising him to have access to her account.

Social workers who took over control of Young’s mother’s accounts found that £5,700 had been taken from one of them and had been spent on restaurants, men’s clothing, racing, pubs and a golf club.

It was subsequently discovered that a further £5,400 had been taken from another account and had been spent in the same way.

Miss Bradshaw said that when questioned about the money Young said he thought his mother would have been happy for him to have it and said it was for essentials.

Cathy McCulloch for Young said her client knew what he had done was wrong and felt genuine remorse.

She said Young had been employed as a civil servant for 30 years and had been on a salary of £25,000 pa.

As a result of the offences he had faced a disciplinary hearing which was awaiting the outcome of the court proceedings.

She said that Young had not been allowed to see his mother and he had been feeling depressed and suicidal.

Miss McCulloch said some of the money Young took had been spent on his mother but he accepted the lion’s share was spent on himself.