A TEENAGER who stole his stepfather's bank card and used it for fraud after a period of living rough in his car to escape his brutality, has been sentenced.

Matthew Swale, 19, was conditionally discharged for a year by Harrogate magistrates after admitting theft and two charges of deception, and asking for seven other deceipt charges to be considered.

Swale, who now has a bed at Harrogate's homeless project in Bower Road, was ordered to pay costs of £145 and compensation of £138.

Court chairman John Render said: ''We are taking an exceptional view because of the circumstances you are in.''

His solicitor, David Camidge, said the incident had been a sorry episode in Swale's life, which he now wanted to put behind him.

He added that he had lived in his car because of violence by his stepfather but had handed himself to police and confessed what he had done with the bank card.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said Swale's mother had hidden her husband's bank card beneath a mattress while her son was staying with her. It disappeared at the end of November and was used nine times in three days.

Mr Camidge told the bench: ''Swale no longer has any contact with his stepfather, or indeed his mother, having suffered a degree of violence at his stepfather's hands."