A BRIERLEY Hill teenager who left a 12-year-old schoolgirl badly shaken when he snatched her mobile telephone has been spared jail.

Roy Thomas pounced onto the girl as she was calling a friend on her mobile as she made her way to school - Warren Stanier, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court.

He said the 18-year-old then ran off leaving the young girl "considerably upset" but he was later arrested by police officers.

Thomas, of Nagersfield Road, admitted theft and was given six months in a Young Offenders Institution suspended for two years and also placed under Supervision for two years.

Judge Helen Hughes told him his future was now in his own hands but she warned he would go straight to prison if he committed a further offence.

Amanda Tompkins, defending, said Thomas was a vulnerable young man who would have found it extremely difficult behind bars.

She said it was Thomas' first offence of dishonesty and, while he accepted he had problems, he was determined to put his life onto the straight and narrow.