HEARTLESS Andrew Jenkins stole nearly £9,000 of his dying brother's savings after taking his bank card from his hospice bedside.

Paralysed Mark Jenkins was being cared for at the Nightingale McMillan Unit at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

Police and friends believe Andrew, 27, took the card and pin number from a locker when Mark was drowsy on painkillers, and used it to withdraw cash 16 times.

He was caught when Mark asked friends to check how much money was in his account and they found there was just £1,000 left.

Mark had been saving the money to pay for alterations at his Normanton home so he could move there to see out his final days.

Andrew, of no fixed address, has now had eight months added to a five-year jail term he was serving for armed robbery, after admitting the theft at Derby Crown Court.

Friends of Mark, who had suffered with crippling rheumatoid arthritis since he was a child and could only move his mouth, said that he was devastated when he found out about the theft, and died a few months later following a chest infection, aged 37.

His childhood friend, Rob Peach, said: "I noticed a change in him after he found out. I think he thought there was nothing else to live for.''