A YORK lawbreaker who keeps flouting curfews was today free to do so again - because he is too young to be locked up.

Youth justices were told that the 14-year-old vehicle snatcher had broken a curfew, intended to keep him indoors between 7pm and 7am, on three nights out of four.

He had a totally cavalier attitude to his remand conditions, and when he was arrested by police, he told them: "Little kids are allowed out later than I am."

The teenager, who cannot be identified but is from east York, is awaiting sentence for eight offences committed since November 16, some of which he carried out while on bail.

Yesterday he appeared in custody at York Youth Court and admitted breaching a court curfew by being out at midnight on the opposite side of the city from where he lives.

Angela Smith, prosecuting, said magistrates could not keep him in custody until he is sentenced because the law said he was too young and his type of offending was not serious enough.

He was remanded back into the care of the local authority, which means he can walk the streets of York. Justices heard it could be six weeks before he is sentenced while psychological and pre-sentence reports are prepared.

They also re-imposed the curfew and warned him that if he continued to defy the law he could reach a point at which they could lock him up.

They heard that his mother had said she was worried sick and lay awake at night wondering what was happening. When he breached his bail last weekend, York magistrates revoked bail conditions that allowed him to live with her and ordered that the local authority take care of him. He was not living with her when he was out at midnight.

The boy, who was represented by Colin Byrne, pleaded guilty to aggravated taking of a vehicle on December 5 and driving it without a licence or insurance, taking a motorcycle without consent on January 12, being carried in a stolen vehicle on November 16, interfering with a car on December 6, using threatening words or behaviour on Boxing Day and failure to attend court on December 11.

Updated: 10:23 Wednesday, January 23, 2002