YORK'S oldest "anti-social" teenager was today starting three months in custody for burglary and theft.

Jobless Patrick Pearce Harris, 19, steals to support his younger brother and sister, York magistrates heard.

In his latest crimes, he broke into a Rawcliffe solicitor's garden shed with two younger youths while on bail for shoplifting in York city centre.

Simultaneously, he was trying to organise the day-to-day household life and expenses for his younger brother and sister because their single parent mother has a drink problem and his older brother John, 20, is serving a prison sentence.

In January Patrick Harris, of Crombie Avenue, Clifton, was the oldest of three teenagers made the subject of York's first Anti-Social Behaviour Order after local residents and shopkeepers complained to police about their activities in Crichton Avenue last summer.

At York Magistrates Court, he pleaded guilty to stealing a lawnmower and a suitcase containg masonic regalia in the shed raid on May 10 and stealing shirts worth £89.97 from Savoy Tailors Guild, Coney Street, on February 7.

A charge of stealing cosmetics worth £237.50 from Boots the Chemist in the city centre on March 9, which he had denied, was withdrawn.

A 17-year-old north York heroin user, who denied the Savoy Tailors Guild allegation, had it withdrawn after he pleaded guilty to the Boots the Chemists theft. Magistrates sent Harris to a young offenders institution for 90 days. He has a long record of previous offences.

Graham Sylvester, prosecuting, said Patrick Harris and another person were filmed on CCTV as they stole shirts at Savoy Tailors Guild.

For Harris, John Howard said his father "has not been seen in the family home for some considerable years" and his mother has a drink problem.

Their son does not have either a drink or drugs problem.

As the oldest child at home, Patrick Harris looks after the family and has the "responsibility for keeping the children fed".

Despite looking for work, he is currently on the dole.

"He has been a fairly regular offender and steals not so much for drink or drugs, but to put it in the family pot and keep everybody together," said Mr Howard.

The 17-year-old was given six months' probation with £55 costs after his solicitor Craig Robertson told York Youth Court at an earlier hearing: "This offence was committed in the company of an adult, a young man, who is far more well known to the courts than he is."

A 16-year-old from north York is serving a four-month detention and training order for the burglary and a 15-year-old, also from north York, is awaiting sentence. Both admitted the offence.

John Harris, no fixed address, is serving a three-year jail sentence for a street stabbing in The Groves.