POLITICIANS and victim support groups reacted with disbelief yesterday after a whip-round in court resulted in two prosecution solicitors paying a defendant's £1 fine.

The whip-round at South Durham Youth Court, in Darlington, happened when neither the 16-year-old defendant nor his guardian had money pay fine.

The defendant - who appeared before the court for failing to attend supervision sessions, which were imposed after he was convicted of making a threat to kill - said he could not pay the fine immediately.

Magistrates had decided to impose a small fine after the court was told how the boy's behaviour has started to improve.

The youth also had his supervision order extended to add to the fine.

When magistrates expressed their reluctance to adjourn proceedings, others stepped in to help the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Derek Walton and his colleague, Jonathan Bambro, solicitors from the Crown Prosecution Service, said they gave the cash to avoid the case having to come back to court.

Court officials said they had never come across such a situation before.

Mr Walton said: "This was certainly new to me. Even though it wasn't our case, the circumstances allowed us to intervene and assist."

Mr Bambro said: "It was a situation where the chairman of the bench came out and said he wanted to bring things to a close, so it was an obvious situation that needed some assistance.

"It was a token fine, and so we were able to help out. It saves dragging the case back into court."

But the events in court provoked astonishment from leading figures around the town.

Darlington's Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate, Anthony Frieze, said it was extraordinary.

He said: "This whole situation has left me almost speechless. I do not understand what a £1 fine achieves, or how it in any way dissuades people from committing a crime."

Michael Nicholson, from Darlington Victim Support, said both the fine and the means to raise the money were appalling.

"This is really diabolical," he said. "It is almost encouraging youths not to conform to the law, and to commit further crime.

"A lot of people have already lost a lot of faith in the criminal justice system, and this is another very sad situation.

"Those people who offered money should know better than to discourage this lad from coming back to the straight and narrow.