9:29am Friday 15th January 2010
A TEENAGER who fired a rocket at a row of shops in York must work with members of the community for three months in a bid to reform his behaviour, magistrates have ordered.
They gave the 15-year-old boy a three-month referral order for his dangerous prank in Burlington Avenue, Tang Hall.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at York Youth Court to firing a firework into a road on November 5, contrary to the Explosives Act 1875.
Magistrates at an earlier hearing heard he held the rocket in his hands, lit it and fired it across the road from a driveway at a row of shops.
When it hit a shop sign, he and two friends jumped up and down with delight. But they were unaware that their actions were being watched by two police community support officers. The two other youths with him rode off as the officers approached.
His solicitor, Harry Bayman, said then that the boy maintained the rocket had slipped in his hand and he had been burned himself in the incident. “We are talking about foolish and immature behaviour on Fireworks Night,” he said. “It is a thoughtless incident rather than anything worse."
Because it was the boy's first conviction and he pleaded guilty at his first court appearance, the magistrates could, by law, only give him a referral order. They decided against making a parenting order on the boy’s mother, after hearing of her efforts to keep him on the right side of the law.
Police had previously given him a reprimand and a final warning for vandalism offences. Neither ranks as a conviction nor involves a court appearance.
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