A BELVEDERE boy has been sentenced to youth custody after admitting a series of offences at two separate hearings.

The boy, aged 14, appeared before Bexley Youth Court last week charged with burglary at Booker Cash and Carry in Kennet Road, Crayford, on July 13, when a stolen car was used to ram open the security shutter at the warehouse after the wire fence had been cut.

The teenager also admitted allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car at Bexley Village railway station car park on July 22. It had been stolen two days earlier in Farningham.

The teenager also pleaded guilty to breaking his Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) by allowing himself to be carried in a car he knew was stolen.

In his defence, Maya Kor said, during the burglary, the boy had been drunk on vodka and under the influence of cannabis. He had also been subjected to peer pressure to take part. She said he had not realised the car in the car park had been stolen until the police began chasing them.

In a separate youth court appearance on Monday, the teenager was sentenced for allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car being driven in a dangerous manner and for a breach of his ASBO.

At both hearings, the court was told the boy, already serving a four month detention and training order, was making "excellent progress" in custody, with high standards of behaviour and had become a role model for others and that he was already being considered for early release.

His father also asked the court not to make another detention order. "He deserved everything he gets but he has changed his behaviour and he needs to be out and paying back society for what he has done," he said.

"I cannot guarantee it will work, but further custody won't do him any good."

After consideration, the boy was sentenced on October 17 to a four-month detention and training order for the burglary and another for the breaking of the ASBO, and two more four-month orders on Monday all to run concurrently with each other and with his current order.

He was also fined £100 or one day in custody, which was treated as served, for allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car, and banned from driving for 12 months.

October 24, 2001 9:25

Linda Piper