A man who ran up a debt of more than £8,000 using his mother’s credit card to place bets online was spared jail yesterday.

David Read, of Uggeshall Close in Lowestoft, according to reports used a Virgin credit card belonging to his mother to place bet on gambling websites between September 10 and October 25 last year.

Within a month he was said to have amassed a debt of £8,286.92 and hid letters from the credit card company from his unsuspecting mum.

She only found out about the debt when she read a letter stating that she had missed the minimum payment on her card.

Appearing before Lowestoft Magistrates’Court yesterday, Read pleaded guilty but his mother said she didn’t want him to go to jail, although she wanted him punished, so as to help him deal with his gambling addiction.

He was, thus, sentenced to a 12-month community order with supervision and a requirement to complete a one-to-one programme to address his gambling addiction.

He was also banned from gambling or using a computer for gambling purposes for 12 months.

In addition, Read was ordered to pay £60 in cost and £5,000 compensation to Virgin credit cards.