A woman who stole £180,000 from her sick elderly parents has been jailed.

School worker Gina Matthews, of Barfields Path in Loughton, raided her cancer-stricken mother Pauline Chalkley's bank account over five years and stopped paying the care home fees for her father John Chalkley, who has multiple sclerosis.

Jailing the 42-year-old for 21 months, Judge Christopher Ball QC said the fact that Matthews had two children would not stop her from being sent to jail.

He also imposed an indefinite restraining order at Chelmsford Crown Court banning Matthews from contacting her parents. 

Jailing Matthews Judge Ball told her: "It was a very significant breach of trust against people who were very reliant on you and in a position of significant vulnerability.

"That theft, I have no doubt, went towards funding your own very comfortable lifestyle and towards the end of the five and a half years there appears to have been a disturbing cocaine habit which has arisen from somewhere."

When things came to a head in March 2013, Matthews attempted to take her own life by cutting her wrists while "intoxicated with cocaine", the court heard.

Matthews pleaded guilty on the day of the trial to three charges of fraud between 2007 and 2013.

Mrs Chalkley, who was receiving treatment for stomach cancer, lives in Loughton and her husband is in a care home in Buckhurst Hill.

Prosecutor Barry Gilbert said Mrs Chalkley opened a savings account with £192,000 in 2007.

Her daughter transferred the money to another account which enabled her to then write cheques pretending to be Mrs Chalkley and to use the debit card.

All the money had been spent at the time Matthews was arrested.

Barclays has repaid £180,000 to the Chalkleys because it accepted it "should have been more vigilant" with its administration, he added.

Mitigating, Lorhan Amirthananthar said Mrs Chalkley Matthews helped her mother and visited her father regularly.

She continued : "At first, what started as sometimes borrowing money with a view to putting it back, it snowballed with one's hands in the goodie bag.

"Sometimes good people do very bad things and she really does fall into that category. She's very sorry."