TWO women branded 'Neanderthals' have been jailed after a drunken rampage which ended with the pair threatening police with a plank of wood and shard of glass.

Abigail Hopwood, 22, and Ashton Bowles, 20 – who between them have a string of previous convictions, including police assault and arson – were branded "utterly lawless".

The pair, said to have a deep-seated hatred of police, twice embarked on a drunken trail of destruction in Catterick Garrison, said Bashir Ahmed, prosecuting.

They were arrested and bailed after the first incident but returned in the early hours five days later and lured police there with a 999 call, York Crown Court heard.

When officers arrived, Bowles threatened them with a plank of wood while Hopwood was found wielding a piece of broken glass.

Mr Ahmed said the two officers attended The Broadway where CCTV had captured the pair kicking a phone box and smashing a glass pane.

Bowles was seen ambling through the town swinging the piece of wood around.

He said that when the officers approached, she threatened them with the plank and put up a fight and had to be bundled to the ground and cuffed.

Hopwood, of Colville Crescent, Colburn, admitted public disorder, criminal damage, making a hoax 999 call and possessing an offensive weapon. Bowles, 20, from Richmond, admitted the same offences on August 4 and 9.

Mr Ahmed said £168 damage was caused to the phone box which was out of action for some time.

Hopwood had 19 previous convictions for 47 offences including drunk and disorderly, police assault, resisting arrest and breaching court orders and Asbos.

In January this year, she was given an eight-week suspended prison sentence for assaulting three police officers, public disorder and possessing an offensive weapon, namely a metal pole.

Bowles had five previous convictions including criminal damage, resisting a police officer, public disorder and an arson which caused almost £9,000 worth of damage to commercial premises in Catterick. She received a suspended prison sentence for this last year.

Mr Ahmed said the pair had largely committed the offences together.

Barrister Philip Morley, for Hopwood, said alcohol was behind her offending and she has since lost her job at McDonald’s as a result. The court heard Bowles was “easily led”.

Judge Paul Batty branded the pair “drunken louts” and “utterly lawless”.

He said prison was inevitable, adding: “You seem to have little or no regard for the good people of Catterick Garrison.

“You seem to have a deep-seated hatred of the authorities, in particular the police, (as evidenced by) the hoax telephone calls and the luring of police to the area so you could… goad them and threaten them.

“You were behaving in a positively Neanderthal fashion towards authority.”

Jailing Bowles and Hopwood for 13 months apiece, he added: “These sentences are the very least the court can impose.”