A TEENAGER ran up over £1,300 on his terminally ill grand-mother's credit card whilst using her computer to gamble on an internet casino.

Lee Anthony Woods was only caught when his relative received a late payment reminder for website betting services she had never used.

And Christine Pemberton, 54, said: "We took care of him and treated him like a son.

"We fed him, ironed his shirts and did everything he needed and this is how he repaid us."

Woods, 18, has now pleaded guilty to three charges of theft and asked for five similar offences to be taken into account.

He was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report by magistrates.

Woods, who lived with his grandparents' home at Hacking Drive, Longridge, but now lives in Preston, ran up the debt on the Jackpot Joy website.

Mrs Pemberton said her grandson came to live with her and her husband James, 52, after being thrown out of his Preston home by his mother.

She said Woods had taken the credit card from her purse last January, just as she was diagnosed with Picks Disease, a degenerative neurological problem similar to Alzheimer's Disease.

She said: "He started going quiet and staying in his bedroom more and more. I wondered what was up with him and thought he might be depressed.

"A little bit after this I received my bank statement and saw that some money had gone out and I approached him about it.

"He ended up jumping out of the window to get away from his grandad when he was questioned about it.

"His grandad looked all over Longridge and Preston for him, he even followed a bus he thought he might be on but it turned out he wasn't."

Mrs Pemberton, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis, said the incident had hit her hard and caused her health to suffer further.

She added: "It's really knocked me back."I don't know why he did it I never though he'd do something like this.

"You just don't expect it because he was so quiet and I was so ill at the time waiting to go in to hospital.

"He'd come and sit with me and tell me how his day had been.

"I never see him anymore. I'd speak to him if I got the chance but I wouldn't let him back to stay, not after what he's done. "

Charlotte Crane, prosecuting, told Blackburn magistrates: "The couple examined the computer and found details of gambling sites.

"He was arrested and admitted taking details of his grandma's cards and using them to gamble on the internet. He said his gambling problem had got totally out of control."

Basharat Ditta, defending, said his client was deeply embarrassed and deeply remorseful.

He said Woods had been legitimately using the computer when a 'pop-up' advertising Jackpot Joy offered him the chance to play roulette.

After the case, Gamcare, which offers support and advice to those with gambling problems, said online gambling sites offered a quick fix solution to peoples money problems that often did the opposite by leading people in to debt.

A spokesman said: "You can't stop people taking credit cards, that's a criminal activity, but what you can do is raise awareness that these pop ups for gambling sites are not the solution to people's lives and in the end there's only one winner and that's the website."