A DESPERATE mother-of-two who ran up a £9,000 debt on a credit card belonging to the previous owner of a house she had moved into was jailed for eight months yesterday.

Bolton Crown Court heard that during a two-month spending spree Shelley Louise Wallace, aged 27, of Princess Avenue, Kearsley, bought food and goods that she would not have normally been able to afford.

The theft of the money came to light when the son of the woman who lived in the house before Wallace asked her bank if he could look after her financial affairs.

He was told that his mother had been sent a credit card but that it had been recalled. The police were alerted when it was realised it had been used illegally.

She admitted four specimen charges of obtaining money by deception and one of theft and asked for 133 similar offences to be taken into consideration.

Prosecutor Ahmed Nadim said that the Visa card for the elderly woman had been sent to her old address 13 months after she had last lived there.

Wallace had then proceeded to use the Visa card in many different shops on a total of 137 occasions until it was retained by a store in Farnworth. The total debt was £9,074.

Defending, Brian McKenna said that the envelope containing the card had been opened by her son and as she had been struggling financially she looked on it as though she had won the lottery.

Wallace had fled from a violent partner in Salford to a new house in Kearsley, which used to be occupied by the elderly woman.

She used it mainly to buy goods for her children and to buy food. She had been suffering from depression and survived on income support and because she had moved from Salford she had no support or friends in the Kearsley area.

Recorder Michael Byrne said the offences were so serious that only a custodial sentence was justified.

The court heard that Wallace's friend in Eccles will look after the children while she serves her sentence.