A YORK boy aged 15 was today starting a year-long custodial sentence for mugging schoolboys in the street.

The robber threatened his victims with broken glass, or tore jewellery from their necks, or grabbed money from them, during three months of crime, York Youth Court heard. He has also been expelled from school and excluded from education.

The boy pleaded guilty to robbery, two thefts from people, two shoplifting offences, and resisting a policeman.

Youth justices gave him a 12-month detention and training order. They reduced it from the maximum two years because he has already spent at least a month-and-a-half in Wetherby Young Offenders' Institution on remand and because he pleaded guilty.

Prosecutor Jane Chadwick said that on May 24 he stole Bacardi Breezers from Martin's Newsagents, in Hamilton Drive.

Later the same day he threatened a 15-year-old cyclist in Kingsway West with broken glass and robbed him of his £300-plus mountain bike. Arrested a few hours later, police found a piece of a broken Bacardi bottle in his pocket.

On June 13 another 15-year-old boy was crossing Knavesmire when the robber taunted him, with an accomplice. The pair tore necklaces from the victim and grabbed his mobile phone, cash and other items, to a total value of £556.

Two days earlier, the robber had grazed a policeman's shin while being arrested for earlier offences.

On March 27, near Micklegate Bar, he snatched £7 from the hand of a friend who had refused to lend him £1. On April 17, he shoplifted food worth £20.34 from the Co-op store in Tang Hall Lane.

Craig Sutcliffe, representing the teenager, said the offences occurred at a difficult time in the boy's life. He had been permanently excluded from school and was not living at home, though his family were trying to help him. He stole to buy food for himself, and the robbery on May 24 was committed after he had been drinking.

Since being remanded in custody, he had got some stability in his life and was reflecting on his behaviour. He was also breaking with a peer group whose behaviour had led him into increased offending.

Updated: 10:32 Wednesday, July 09, 2003