Wayne Clouting, 56, started to help himself to his dependent mother’s bank account while acting as her carer and staying in the spare room of her home in Attleborough.
Norwich Magistrates’ Court was told he had transferred more than £10,000 to himself and into a number of online gambling accounts between April and December last year.
Jackie Hanlon, prosecuting, said his mother was elderly and vulnerable and was “reliant and totally trusting of her son”.
The “high abuse of trust” had seen him steal savings and the proceeds of a house sale that she was relying on to see her through old age.
Wayne Clouting helped himself to the bank account of his vulnerable mother (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)
Clouting, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position.
He also admitted possession of a seven-inch knife which was found underneath a pillow during a search following his arrest.
Magistrates jailed him for 12 months and imposed a five-year restraining order banning contract with his mother.
The former delivery driver had originally been charged with stealing more than £20,000 but his basis of plea was that he had taken £10,265 which could be financially tracked, though the court was told more had been taken.
His mother has since been refunded for the losses by the Nationwide Building Society.
Clouting has been jailed for 12 months for fraud by abuse of position (Image: Newsquest)
James Landles, mitigating for Clouting, said his “despicable behaviour” had come after he had “not been able to juggle his job, relationship and caring for his mother”.
Following the break-up with his former partner he had moved in with his mother after becoming unemployed and homeless and had become “embroiled in a gambling addiction”.
“He didn’t set out to defraud his mother from the outset,” he added.