A BOMBER'S drunken prank ended in court yesterday when he was ordered to do 200 hours community work.

Michael Titchmarsh, 21, detonated a home-made explosive device in a wheelie-bin after drinking with friends.

But an Army bomb disposal expert brought in from Catterick Garrison revealed that the blast was so strong it damaged buildings 30m away and showered shards of the plastic bin across a wide area.

The shocked man apologised to neighbours but he was later arrested by police, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Titchmarsh told police that he had a party at his Saltburn home and decided to make a banger, but his first attempt did not make a big enough bang.

Stephen Ashurst, defending, said that Titchmarsh was egged on by friends before he set off the devices at 11.30pm on a Sunday. "He engineered a prank that he thought would be no worse than that, but he accepts that it caused alarm to the people of Saltburn.

"He is remorseful and since he committed this offence he has been devastated and dreads to think what the consequences might have been."

Titchmarsh was ordered to pay £443 compensation after he pleaded guilty to destroying property on May 11.

Titchmarsh of Montrose Street, Saltburn, was also ordered to pay £397 prosecution costs and to do 200 hours Community Punishment, which Judge Leslie Spittle hoped would be done in the town.