A TEENAGE junkie was jailed for five years yesterday for stabbing a man who caught him trying to steal his car.

A judge told 19-year-old Andrew Poole that he could have killed Mark Lambert, who was trying to stop him from driving away in Mr Lambert's Vauxhall Nova parked near his home.

Mr Lambert was asleep, at 12.30am, when his girlfriend, Kelly Fishburn, woke him to say she had heard attempts to start the engine, Teesside Crown Court heard

A gang of about ten youths scattered when he went outside his Middlesbrough home, but Poole stayed behind the wheel.

Mr Lambert opened the driver's door and struggled with Poole, before suddenly feeling three "punches" to his stomach.

He looked down and saw blood pouring from him, and then realised that Poole was holding a lock knife. Poole ran off, leaving Mr Lambert with three stab wounds, said Peter Johnson, prosecuting.

Poole of Surrey Street, Middlesbrough, was arrested four hours later. Specks of blood were found on his white jacket. The knife was not found.

After appearing before Teesside magistrates he was granted bail, but that same day he saw Miss Fishburn near Middlesbrough's Albert Park and accused her of "grassing" on him.

He threatened to shoot her, saying: "Watch your back because I'm going to get someone to get you."

He was arrested two days later and charged with witness intimidation and breach of bail conditions.

In the succeeding days, still on bail, Poole raided two off-licences in Middlesbrough, making off with £150 from one but being caught by passers-by after making his escape empty handed from the second.

Robin Turton, defending, said that Poole's life had been ruined by crack cocaine, heroin and alcohol, but he wanted to make a fresh start.

Poole pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding, intimidation, robbery and attempted robbery between September 28 and November 15 last year.

Judge Peter Fox QC told him: "You have got to be stopped and you must, and should, be given the opportunity, if you will take it, for learning a different and better way."

Poole was jailed for three years for the stabbing and given two years consecutively for the other offences.