TWO tearaway schoolboy brothers, aged 12 and 13, have become the youngest in Britain to be banned from a town centre under anti-hooligan laws.

The pair, dubbed the "Brothers Grim" have been responsible for a string of physical and verbal attacks on pensioners.

Yesterday, the boys appeared before Hartlepool magistrates, on Teesside, where they were banned from certain areas of the town centre under an anti-social behaviour order.

The brothers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had subjected long-suffering residents near Hartlepool town centre to sustained abuse and vandal attacks.

In one incident, they placed a 15ft length of wood spiked with six inch nails - across a busy road in front of oncoming cars.

They also attacked pensioners, throwing stones and mud at them, and tried to trip them with a length of fishing line, as they visited the local Mill House Leisure Centre.

In another incident, the boys held a length of wallpaper across a road, causing a motorist to mount the kerb when it obscured his windscreen.

Yesterday, Gerard Tompkins, Cleveland Police solicitor, applied for the anti-social behaviour order against them It was not opposed by their lawyer.

Magistrates agreed the youngsters should be banned from a number of shops in the town centre as well as the Mill House Leisure Centre and warned them to put an end to the "harassment and nuisance" which they had caused.