A JUDGE has warned a teenager to sort out her alcohol problem after her fifth court appearance for being drunk and disorderly - by the age of 18.

Shauna Mincher was spared prison after police found a knife in her handbag after being called to her causing a disturbance in a Hartlepool pub.

At Teesside Crown Court yesterday, she was given a community order with supervision and told to go on an alcohol programme to address her problem.

Recorder Martin Bethel, QC, told her: "You must understand it's getting you into more and more serious trouble. I do hope you will take the help."

Mincher, of Allerton Close, Hartlepool, admitted being drunk and disorderly and possessing a bladed article four days before last Christmas.

The court heard that she refused orders to leave The Central pub for threatening customers, but by the time police got there she was in the street.

At the police station, she told officers they would find a knife in her bag, but added: "It's been there for months but I'd forgotten it was there."

Referring to her four previous convictions for drunk and disorderly, Martin Scarborough, mitigating, said: "Clearly, alcohol has been a problem."

Mr Recorder Bethel told her: "It is really sad to see somebody only 18 and this is the fifth time you have been in court for being drunk and disorderly.

"You have plainly got a problem with alcohol and you need help to deal with it. I hope the courts won't have to deal with you any more for this type of behaviour."