A Felixstowe woman with an online gambling addiction who stole more than £17,000 from her elderly mother while she was in a care home has been ordered to repay just £1 after a court heard she had no assets.

June Rawlings, 53, of Cricket Hill, Felixstowe, pleaded guilty last year to fraud by false representation and was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years.

She was also given a 13 week curfew and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work in the community.

Gerard Pounder, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, told a proceeds of crime hearing that Rawlings’ benefit from her offending was £23,000.

He explained that this figure included the £17,000 she had stolen and £6,000 unexplained credits to her account.

He said Rawlings had no available assets and he asked the court to make a nominal £1 confiscation order which would allow a further order to be made if she came into money in the future.

During last year’s sentencing hearing the court heard that Rawlings, who described her mother as her “best friend”, made more than 300 deposits totalling more than £17,000 from her mother’s bank account into her online gambling account during the fraud but repaid £5,000.

Rawlings mother, who died in July 2015, was admitted to a care home because of her failing health and had entrusted her daughter to deal with her financial affairs.

After his mother’s death, Rawlings’ brother discovered his sister had been stealing from their mother’s bank account and she was arrested.