A homeless alcoholic who stole a bank card and more than £2,000 from a retired Ipswich woman who gave him a roof over his head has been jailed for 18 weeks.

Sentencing Tim Spiller, Judge David Goodin said: ”You committed treacherous and beastly offences towards someone who had shown you nothing but kindness and hospitality and deserved considerably more from you than she got.”

Spiller, 36, whose address was given as care of Black Horse Lane, Ipswich, admitted stealing a bank card and PIN number and four offences of fraud.

Peter Gair, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, said the victim of the offences was a retired woman who had taken Spiller in at a time when he was homeless and had a drink problem.

He had found her bank card and PIN and used it at cash machines in the Derby Road area of Ipswich over a period of a month between December last year and January this year.

The victim of the offences discovered money was missing from her bank account in January and Spiller was identified as the culprit after police viewed CCTV footage.

Spiller had subsequently handed himself into the police and made full admissions to the offences.

Mr Gair said Spiller had withdrawn £2,550 from the victim’s account and she had been forced to use money from her savings to pay for her living expenses as a result of what he had done.

Mr Gair said Barclays Bank had reimbursed her for the money taken from her account.

He said the woman had to have her locks changed and anxiety and depression she suffered from had been made worse by what Spiller had done.

Lindsay Cox for Spiller accepted the offences were an unattractive breach of trust.

“She had been nothing other than kind, generous and supportive to him,” said Mr Cox.