A MAN grabbed his mum round the neck and bit her hand in a bid to steal £10.

Thomas Wood, of Glebe Street, Leigh, a drug addict, called at his mum's home in Wigan on the evening of April 22.

At Bolton Crown Court, Brian McKenna, prosecuting, told how Wood, 34, asked his mum Lesley Smith, for cash, but became angry when she said she did not have any and she tried to hide a £10 note in her hand.

"He had seen what she had done. He grabbed her tightly round the neck so she couldn't breathe properly," he said.

"He then dragged her onto the couch and and grabbed the hand that held the £10 and he bit it."

He took the cash and was arrested the following month.

In a victim statement read out in court she said: "The whole incident has caused me so much upset. All want is a quiet life. He is a disgrace."

Wood, who has a lengthy criminal record, pleaded guilty to theft and assault.

Anthony O'Donohoe, defending, described it as an "extremely mean incident" committed to fund a heroin addiction.

But he added that Mrs Smith has written to her son in prison and they have begun to be reconciled.

Sentencing Wood to nine months in prison, Judge Timothy Stead told him: "Drugs are a real menace in your case — they must have brought misery to you and they have certainly brought misery to other people.

"You have gone to your mother's house and made a victim of her. It is shameful and I hope you know it. It is a disgrace."

A restraining order was also made banning Wood from going within 100 metres of her home.