He used 13 of his parents’ credit cards and, as he gambled into the early hours, ran up debts of £158,000. Mahan, 25, then tried to kill himself in what is believed to be Scotland’s worst case of internet gambling addiction.

His parents, Linda and James, called in the police after the credit card companies told them that their insurance would not be valid unless they did so.

Forfar Sheriff Court was told yesterday that Mahan kept gambling at his parents’ home in Brechin, Angus, in April last year until he exhausted the limits on all the credit cards.

Sheriff Kevin Veal said: “If £150,000 can be lost in 50 minutes under clandestine conditions in the early hours of the morning, it is an issue so great that it needs to be addressed by the wider community. It is a social issue.”

Brian Bell, the procurator fiscal, said: “Initially he’d made over £90,000 in profit but within an hour he continued gambling and started to lose money heavily until the credit cards ran dry. He then tried to commit suicide. The credit card companies indicated that unless the matter was reported to the police the insurance cover would not come into place and the parents would have to pay back the money.”

John Clancy, representing Mahan, said that the case highlighted the dangers of the lack of regulation of internet gambling. “The court should be aware that internet gambling, along with alcohol and heroin, is the scourge of the 21st century because it is unregulated,” he said. “It also raises questions about the wisdom of credit card companies allowing borrowing levels to be raised without any real checks.

“My own firm is seeing more and more cases of bankruptcies every week arising from addiction to online gambling.”

Sheriff Veal, deferring sentence, warned Mahan, who admitted fraud, that he faces jail. He added: “One can understand the line that the credit card companies took because of the sums involved.

“The quantum is so great that a prison sentence may have to be imposed in the public’s interest.”

Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for William Hill, said that the gambling industry was heavily regulated. “The Government regulates gambling in this country and we do what we are required to do and more.

“How could anybody know he was not who he said he was or that the credit cards were not his? If I spent £90,000 on a car with my credit card, would anybody criticise me?”

Last month a young man left in charge of his parents’ home while they were on a two-day break ran up internet gambling debts of £30,000, using his father’s credit cards.

Daniel Richardson, 22, of Darwen, Lancashire, spent less than half an hour placing bets of up to £5,000. Magistrates in Blackburn were told that he sent his parents an e-mail telling them where to find a written confession and gave himself up. Richardson, who was accompanied by his father, Stephen, a property developer, pleaded guilty to theft. He was made the subject of a community supervision order for 12 months and told to do 200 hours’ unpaid work.

Catherine Allan, for the prosecution, said that Richardson, who works for his father, had a history of gambling problems.

The Halifax has reimbursed £19,800 and MBNA £7,272 to his father. Stephen Richardson said: “Obviously £30,000 is a lot of money and I had my wife and family to think of so I had to go ahead with the prosecution.

“If there had been a chance of custody I do not know what I would have done. I could not have sent my son to prison.”

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