A TEENAGER from a hard-working family committed "a catalogue of loutish behaviour" over six months including a firebomb threat, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Stephen Ash, who left school with high academic potential, had been the despair of his parents because of heavy drinking, said Recorder Graham Cliff.

Ash, 18, of The Birches, Stourport, was put on probation for two years and ordered to do 80 hours community work. He was also fined £25 and ordered to pay £46.58 compensation.

He had been sent for sentence by Kidderminster magistrates for offences which included common assault, threatening behaviour, assault causing actual bodily harm, theft, damaging property, aggravated vehicle taking and driving without insurance.

Ash's offending began at Stourport Co-op in January when he elbowed the assistant manager and threatened to firebomb the home of another staff member, said Tim Hannam, prosecuting.

Later that month, he stole lager from the Spar shop in Lickhill Road, Stourport, and attacked the manager, injuring his finger.

In February, he gave a false name for a job interview and stole a secretary's purse. Ash was banned from Baldwin Road stores in Stourport in March and broke glass in the door when he was pushed outside.

In June, he took an R-registration car from the home of a woman who had befriended him and damaged it as he drove round before returning it.

Three weeks later, he attacked a man in Park Lane, Kidderminster.

Delroy Henry, defending, said it had been a disgraceful spate of offending but four months in custody had had a salutary effect. Ash was now the father of an eight-months-old child and intended to change his ways. His family was having him back.

Recorder Cliff said Ash had been "a thorough nuisance on the streets" and acted like some much younger. His family was ashamed of what he had done.