A TEENAGE tearaway who broke an Anti-Social Behaviour Order (Asbo) was given a last chance by a judge yesterday.

Judge Les Spittle told Carl Rankin, 19, that he would go to prison if he offended again.

Rankin had been given a three-year Asbo in May 2002, with a condition banning him from congregating in a group of five or more people outside any premises in Middlesbrough.

He was seen on July 6, 2002 on a street corner in central Middlesbrough with a large group of youths, one of whom went on to commit a robbery, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting.

Rankin was seen 12 days later, burgling a neighbour's house by climbing through a ground-floor window to steal a computer console and games worth £200, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Paul Cleasby, in mitigation, said Rankin had been approved for a Drug Testing and Training Order and said there had been a slowdown in his offending.

He said: "In the past, he appears to have been easily misled."

The judge told Rankin: "The pre-sentence report on you is good in the sense that the drug testing and treatment order is the obvious way if you are to break the cause of your offending, and all the conditions for such an order are in place.

"What is required of you is not an easy option. I notice that you are smiling, and if you fail to comply with this order, you will not be smiling.

"This is a chance to break the habit. If you want it, take it with both hands. If not, break it and I will send you to prison."

Rankin, of Sunnydale Road, Middlesbrough, was given a drug treatment testing order for 12 months by the court after he pleaded guilty to burglary, breach of an Asbo and breach of bail.

His Asbo will continue until next year.