TEENAGERS who set fire to a patrol car and attacked a police station in a copycat attack at the time of the London riots have been spared jail.

Jamie Nolan, 19, Jordan Dixon, and Nikkie Schofield, both 17, were part of a gang which hurled petrol bombs and a brick at Washington police station, on Wearside, last summer.

They caused thousands of pounds-worth of damage and injured an officer in the 3am attack on August 10.

Passing sentence at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge John Milford said: ‘‘It was about this time in early August last year that there were in London, and in other cities in this country, riots and the widespread looting of shops.

‘‘In this region, it did not occur – for which the people of it should take pride.

‘‘There was one exception, though, where the copybook was blotted and it was blotted by you three and others who should be, but are not, before the court. It was serious offending, but, that said, one must keep things in proportion and it pales into insignificance when one compares it, for instance, with what was going on in Croydon.’’ Nolan, who admitted violent disorder and perverting the course of justice, was ordered to serve 12 months in a young offenders’ institution, suspended for two years, with a one-year community rehabilitation programme.

Dixon and Schofield, who each admitted arson, were each ordered to complete a community rehabilitation order as part of an intensive surveillance programme, and to abide by a three-month curfew monitored by an electronic tag.

PC David Bagly was working at a computer terminal in the first-floor tea room of the police station when a brick was hurled through the reinforced window above his head.

He was showered with fragments of broken glass, which scratched his cornea, damaging his eye.

He saw a gang of about six hooded youths running away from the police station.

Hearing the breaking glass, another officer looked outside to see a Northumbria Police patrol car with flames pouring from its windows.

Robert Adams, prosecuting, said the gang had used empty vodka bottles to make at least two petrol bombs, which were used to burn out the £14,700 vehicle. He said: ‘‘This was an attack on an arm of the state.”

Mr Adams said Schofield, of Roche Court, and Dixon, of Thornhope Close, Barmston, both Washington, were arrested after a police dog handler found their DNA on two discarded sweatshirts which smelled of petrol.

Nolan, of The Poplars, Biddick, Washington, gave police a false alibi when interviewed by detectives, but confessed his involvement when he was arrested two days later.

The judge lifted a legal order which banned Schofield and Dixon from being named.