A 19-YEAR-OLD former gambling addict who tried to take nearly £8,000 from his father's bank account to pay off debts has been put behind bars for seven months.

Patrick Kendall owed £9,000 and struggled to pay huge interest rates, Plymouth magistrates heard.

The scaffolder used his father's credit card in a bid to transfer £7,800 into his own account, the court heard.

Kendall, of Mannamead Road, also took a colleague's bank card and posed as him to withdraw £260 from his account.

Magistrates heard that Kendall was in breach of a six-month suspended sentence imposed only in June for 11 offences of fraud and two of theft. They sent Kendall to a young offenders' institution for a total of seven months.

Kendall admitted fraud intending to make a gain of £260 on August 12. He also admitted theft of a bank card and £10 belonging to his work colleague.

He asked for another fraud matter of attempting to transfer £7,800 from his father's account to his own to be taken into consideration.

Louise Howard, prosecuting, said that a fellow scaffolder noticed his wallet had been taken from a cabin at Devonport Dockyard on August 12. She added that Kendall was spotted on CCTV withdrawing £260 from his colleague's account at a bank in St Budeaux.

Miss Howard said that when police interviewed Kendall he admitted the fraud where he tried to transfer the cash from his father's bank into his own account.

Sarah Glanville, for Kendall, said that he had started gambling a few years before to cope with the death of his grandmother. At first he started winning but then the tables turned and he started running up a lot of debts.

Miss Glanville said his family found out and his girlfriend gave him an ultimatum.

She added: "He gave up the addiction but was left with a large amount of debt in loans and on credit cards. Because of his age and income he had to take out loans with extremely high interest rates. The debt kept escalating and he was absolutely desperate."

Miss Glanville said that he used credit cards and took money belonging to his family – offences which led to the suspended sentence.

She added that he was deeply ashamed but could not pay off his debts because his job was not paying as much as expected. Miss Glanville said: "Even worse than that he had two loans from loan sharks of £200 each at extremely high interest rates and now owed £1,000 on each. He was absolutely desperate to pay them back. They were making physical threats to him and threatened to attack his girlfriend, who lived with him."

The court heard that he now owed £9,000 in total.

Miss Glanville said that he 'gave into temptation' when he saw the colleague's wallet. She added that if Kendall had not admitted the fraud involving his father it would never have been discovered.

But presiding magistrate Pippa Harling said that the offences were so serious that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.