A father has exhausted his £6,000 savings by giving his heroin addict son money to feed his habit in a desperate bid to stop him turning to crime.

In the last three months alone, the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, has handed over £1,000 to his 24-year-old son to buy the Class A drug.

The retired pensioner, who lives with his wife in a respectable Bradford neighbourhood, started paying for his son's addiction after he caught him smoking heroin in his bedroom three years ago.

Tony, not his real name, has sought help with various drug projects in Bradford but says he needs to buy "street" heroin to top up his methadone dosage which he gets from his GP.

But the money - which his father has carefully logged in a notebook - has run out and he can no longer afford to pay for his son's drug supply.

The father said: "I know a lot of people will think we're mad and we should just cut him off.

"But I don't want him breaking into people's houses. He'll get the drug anyway but at least if in time he comes off the heroin he won't have a criminal record and will have a better chance of getting work again.

"He's been working for most of the time that he's been addicted and I've regulated his wage as well. He's in enough trouble with being addicted to heroin without getting into trouble with the police."

Tony, who now lives with his girlfriend and their child in another part of the city, said a workmate first gave him the drug when he was 18.

He said: "I've been using it for about six years but I'm on methadone as well now. I only started injecting last September but it's got really bad since then.

"I feel absolutely terrible every time I come back with the money but the next day I get the rattles and all I want is the drug.

"If the money runs out then it'll have to be robbing, otherwise I'll kill myself because the craving gets so bad.

"It's like your bones are trying to grow out of your skin."

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