A "despicable and mean" man who stole almost £19,000 of his mother's care home fees to fund his own lifestyle has been ordered to pay back just £1.

Martyn Gardner, 41, had previously been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, after admitting fraud by abuse of position.

Granted power of attorney for his mother in 2017, a year after she went into a home, he was supposed to pay £148 a week to cover the fees, but stopped paying the cash.

Instead over three years he used thousands of pounds on his own supermarket shopping and petrol, and hundreds to pay restaurant bills.

As a consequence his 73-year-old mother was unable to afford basics, including getting her hair cut and toenails trimmed, to the point where they got so long it became painful for her to walk.

"It was a case of a toss up between you and your mother and you decided it was you who would benefit,” he was told by Recorder Guy Ayers QC.

Gardner, of Silfield Road, Wymondham, was back at Norwich Crown Court on Thursday (September 8) to face an application under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The court was told that, despite having fraudulently benefited to a total of £18,937, he now has no assets and is in debt so is unable to repay his mother, who he continues to visit each week.

Instead it had been agreed Gardner, who was unrepresented in court due to the on-going industrial action by defence barristers, would pay just a nominal amount.

Recorder Ayers told him: “You made a significant amount of benefit from your criminal conduct but at the moment you don’t have assets with which to repay that which you shouldn’t have had or made.

“So a notional amount is put in of £1 which you have to pay within 28 days or you go to prison for a day.

“Obviously if you come into money, if you win the pools or get a job with a decent income, then technically this can be opened up again.”

At the original sentencing his defence counsel Lorri Tucker said he accepted it was a "mean, despicable offence" but that he had got into debt after losing his job as a warehouseman and then two other jobs soon after.