Prison warning for teen web gang

The youths were caught after posting pictures online

A youth court has ordered a group of teenagers who terrorised a Flintshire village and boasted about their exploits online to pay compensation.

The six youths, aged between 15 and 17, were also made the subject of two-year Anti-social Behaviour Orders (Asbo).

Magistrate Alan Bissell said the youngsters, who cannot be named for legal reasons, would be sent to prison if they repeated the offences.

The youths, known as "Team Blaze", had only narrowly escaped prison, he said.

The court heard the group's crimes included burglary and vandalism in Flint Mountain.

Mr Bissell said: "It is fair to say that this was not simply a case of a few random acts of vandalism, but a campaign conducted over a period of 12 months, directed at the small community of Flint Mountain.

"It involved criminal damage, arson, and burglary, fuelled unquestionably by the use and consumption of cannabis."

Four of the youngsters were placed on overnight curfews.

Cannabis smoking

The youths regularly made entries on their website.

They boasted about what they had done and also photographed themselves committing crimes, the court heard.

But local police officer Pc Jim Smith accessed the website - which has since been closed down - and was able to put faces to the names of those whose "tags" had been sprayed around the village of Flint Mountain.

Pc Smith was also able to see photographs of the youngsters inside unoccupied houses they had broken into to smoke cannabis.

At Flintshire youth court at Mold, six of the youths were placed on referral orders of between nine and 12 months, requiring them to carry out various activities and sign contracts over their future behaviour.

Intimidating police

Under the Asbos, they are not to use cannabis and three of them were ordered not to post images of graffiti or their tags on websites or transmit them on mobile phones.

One of the youths was ordered to pay £2,276 compensation, another £1,206, a third £1,130 and the remainder were ordered to pay lesser amounts.

The court had heard how some of the "Team Blazers" were responsible for trying to intimidate a police officer who moved into the village.

Dog mess was thrown at the house, and a dead black bird was placed in a skull vase and left on the family's doorstep.

Magistrates, who watched a police recording of the website before it was closed down, saw how the youths documented their antics, with one slogan reading: "Once you are in Team Blaze you dedicate your life to Team Blaze".

Defence solicitors told the court how the youngsters were all doing well at school, came from good and respectable families, and had good futures ahead of them.

They were preparing for examinations and the stress of the proceedings was affecting their studies, they said.