The £5,000 case of the boy who caused criminal damage to a 1p carrier bag

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named, yesterday pleaded guilty to snatching a carrier bag from a 13-year-old girl and breaking its handles.

Magistrates ordered him to complete six hours' community work after hearing that the incident left the younger pupil too scared to walk to school.

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The one-penny prosecution brought scathing criticism over the failure of the justice system to deal with minor infractions without involving scores of lawyers and officials.

Instead, thousands of pounds was wasted on the time of police officers, Crown Prosecution Service staff and lawyers, court workers, officials and magistrates over two separate hearings.

Robert Whelan of the Civitas think tank said: "This is a perfect example of the sort of thing that would once have been dealt with by the community - the kind of offence that would have ended with a clip round the ear.

"Now we have to bring in the full machinery of the law. It is a sign of the weakness of civil society."

The teenager, who has a number of previous convictions, including carrying a blade in a public place and burglary, was reported to police by the parents of his victim.

He seized the carrier bag, which the girl had been using to carry her PE kit, and vandalised it before returning it to her.

The court heard a victim impact statement which said the girl had been very distressed by the incident but wanted to put it behind her.

Police said the girl was now too scared to walk to school and had to be driven there by her parents.

Prosecuting, Tessa Hingston told the Youth Court hearing in Swindon, Wiltshire: "There was some sort of altercation between them.

"As she tried to walk home, she felt a plastic bag being ripped from her hand. It contained her PE kit.

"He took the bag and ripped the handles from it, making it useless. He then handed the bag back to her."

Miss Hingston added that the boy had admitted to police under questioning that it was common for him and his friends to rip handles from plastic bags.

Despite claiming none of them thought anything of such a mindless act, he pleaded guilty to criminal damage at an earlier youth court hearing. As the 16-year-old sat quietly with his mother listening to the details of the case, magistrate Richard Mattick insisted the issue was not the insignificant value of the carrier bag.

"Taking into account all the circumstances, we feel that it wasn't about the bag but it was about the victim," he said.

"At the first hearing we heard about the way the victim now has to be driven to school because of the effect this has had on her."

He gave the boy a reparation order as well as ordering him to report to probation officers for six months.

When magistrates asked the court to confirm the value of the plastic carrier bag, defence solicitor Andrew Hobson replied: "It is criminal damage to the value of 1p."

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said it was unfortunate that the case had been allowed to go to court.

He added: "This case shows yet again how perverse Whitehall targets encourage the police and CPS to pursue costly prosecutions of minor cases.

"Cases like this divert vital resources from tackling serious crime and undermine public confidence."