A NOTORIOUS teenage offender has been locked up after he was caught in a stolen car only weeks after his release from prison on licence.

Amar Majid, of Belle Vue Grove, Middlesbrough, was arrested when the stolen pizza delivery vehicle he was a passenger in crashed following a high-speed police chase.

The 16-year-old pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated vehicle taking - being carried, going equipped to steal, criminal damage and breaching his criminal anti-social behaviour order (crasbo).

Majid also admitted breaching the licence conditions of his detention and training order.

Teesside Youth Court heard Majid had been released from Castington Young Offenders Institute on licence on August 17 and by September 6 he was again caught committing offences. Majid was found to be carrying a screwdriver, gloves and a key to a Skoda when he was arrested following the crash, which happened in Grove Hill area where he was barred from entering due to his Crasbo.

He was also charged with criminal damage after he scratched his name on the wall of the police station's exercise yard.

In mitigation, Simon Walker said Majid had suffered a traumatic up-bringing and deserved a chance to prove he could stay out of trouble.

He said: "He was in the car that was stolen, but he could not get out. It was his bad luck that it stopped in the banned zone, so he couldn't do anything about that.

"I would ask for a one month deferment to give the defendant a future other than in custody."

District Judge Roger Elsey, who lifted the teenager's anonymity, said: "If there was any other alternative I would try to take it up. However, you were released on licence and you immediately breached that.

"There is no alternative but I will make the sentence as short as I can."

Majid was sentenced to a four-month detention and training in a young offenders institute. He was also ordered to serve two months' concurrently for breach of licence and banned from driving for three years.

Earlier in the day, two magistrates failed to come to a decision on the appropriate sentence for the teenager, so the case was re-heard by the district judge.

Majid received the three- year Crasbo in January, after he had been identified in a Middlesbrough scheme as one of the town's top 20 prolific and other priority offenders, one of only two under 18.