Suzy Pieri, 30, pleaded guilty to burgling the Hawes Side home of Ray and Grace Brocklebank and stealing a bottle of morphine-based medicine.

Mr Brocklebank, 86, needs the strong pain-killing medication to alleviate the "unimaginable" pain of his osteo-arthritis.

His wife condemned the theft in a statement to Blackpool Magistrates' Court yesterday,

Pieri, a qualified forensic scientist, conned her way into the house after convincing Mrs Brocklebank she was there to work.

Tracy Yates, prosecuting, said on June 24 Pieri called at their home, stating she had to check Mr Brocklebank's medication.

Mrs Brocklebank let her in because she recognised Pieri as one of the carers who had been to the house previously.

But at 6pm when the pensioner needed medication, it was discovered the medicine was missing.

At first Pieri, of Ashley Mews, Ashton, Preston, denied the offence, but the court heard she was picked out in an identity parade.

In a victim's statement read out to the court, Mrs Brocklebank said: "My husband suffers unbelievable and unimaginable levels of pain and to target him is a despicable act.

"Exploiting our weakness is horrific."

Trevor Colebourne, defending, said his client studied for six years at university, incurring £18,000 worth of debt, to get her qualifications as a forensic scientist.

Unable to get a job in her chosen career, Pieri became a care worker and, after a series of tragedies which included her brother being knocked down and killed by a car and her mother being diagnosed as suffering from multiple sclerosis, she began to suffer from depression.

Mr Colebourne said: "She took the morphine-based medication, drank it and fell to sleep.

"She is receiving medication from her doctor and sees a psychiatrist regularly for her depression."

Pieri was bailed to August 27 for pre-sentence reports by Blackpool magistrates.