A JOBLESS man spent £35,000 inheritance in a year on heroin, a court was told yesterday.

Peter Lake, 22, starting using the drug after his father's death to help him to cope with the grief, said Stephen Constantine, defending.

But he rapidly became an addict and when the money ran out he turned to burglary to fund his habit.

Lake, of Springvale Terrace, Middlesbrough, was remanded on bail at Teesside Crown Court for drug treatment and testing assessment after he pleaded guilty to burgling a Middlesbrough house. He asked for two more burglaries and a theft to be taken into consideration.

Mr Constantine said: "He is now back home with his family after his year in which he blew everything away."

Judge Tony Briggs, who will sentence Lake in three weeks, told him that all options including custody were open.