THE Clifton riot in March was sparked when a thief stole 66 KitKats, a court was told.

Magistrates heard how violence flared between police and youths armed with a baseball bat and breeze blocks after Roy Raymond Coxon, 18, snatched the KitKats from Forbuoys in Crichton Avenue.

When staff accused a 17-year-old with him of shoplifting, the younger teenager returned to smash the shop's door with the bat and fought police while Coxon and others cheered him on.

Some of the youths had breeze blocks.

Coxon, of Kingsway North, Clifton, pleaded guilty to theft on March 7.

He has previous convictions for shoplifting and was conditionally discharged for this latest offence.

Prosecutor David Garnett offered no evidence on a charge of criminal damage to the shop after he agreed to be bound over for a year in the sum of £200.

Magistrates conditionally discharged him for 12 months after hearing he had spent a total of seven days in custody following his arrest and in connection with alleged bail breaches.

They also told him to pay £11.88 compensation and £120 court costs.

The 17-year-old, of north York, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and assaulting a policeman with intent to resist arrest.

York Youth Court will sentence him later this month. A charge of stealing magazines from

Forbuoys was dropped at an earlier stage.

John Howard for Coxon said: "It was the theft that started the whole commotion on that particular evening."

The 18-year-old had not got involved in the criminal damage and had found himself a job since the riot.

Gary Dunn, 16, of Kingsway North, York, is currently serving a four-month detention and training order after he became involved on the edge of the riot and breached the Anti-Social Behaviour Order imposed on him to protect

shopkeepers and residents in Crichton Avenue.

A second 17-year-old, who was one of the youths with breeze blocks, was given community service on Tuesday for affray.