A boy aged 14 has been locked up until after Christmas because he refused to carry out the supervision order which youth justices wanted to give him.

When they asked why, he said: "I just don't want to do it."

His mother added that he feared he would be branded a "police grass" by other youths if not sent into custody, and that he did not want her to have to pay more fines for his crimes.

His solicitor, Craig Robertson, said a detention and training order was not in the boy's interests, but the boy was insisting on it.

"He would rather go to prison than punish his mother further. He doesn't have confidence in the authorities in relation to a supervision order. I am very concerned about putting a 14- year-old boy in custody. I don't think it is right. But those are my instructions," he said.

The boy, who has used different addresses in York and for a time absconded from a children's home, pleaded guilty to nine offences including aggravated taking of a moped, failure to answer police bail, being in an enclosed garden for unlawful purposes, and handling a stolen motor car.

Justices gave him a four-month detention and training order, saying he had tied their hands, and banned him from driving for 12 months.

Colette Dixon, prosecuting, outlined a string of crimes in which the boy was involved, sometimes with other youths. On one occasion he hit a police van when trying to flee on a snatched moped.

Mr Robertson said the boy had fallen into bad, older company, when he and his mother tried to make a new life in York after fleeing from Scotland.

His mother's partner had attacked her.

The boy had suffered the death of a very close elderly relative at about the time he started offending.