A MAN who pretended to have a gun as he frog-marched a teenager around a town in the middle of the night avoided a jail sentence yesterday.

Barry Dunn, 61, of Lakemore, Peterlee, County Durham, admitted a charge of affray and another of using threatening words or behaviour.

David Scutt, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said Dunn arrived drunk at the home of 18-year-old Carl Roberts, shortly after midnight on July 21, demanding to see two men who he believed were inside the house.

When Mr Roberts replied he did not know the men, Dunn became aggressive and said he had a gang of eight lads outside with him, said Mr Scutt. Frightened, Mr Roberts allowed Dunn to search the house.

However, Dunn refused to leave and told Mr Roberts he would "blow his head off" if he did not take him to the men, and intimated he had a gun. Mr Roberts was forced to walk the streets for an hour before spotting a police car and running to it.

In an interview, Dunn said the men he was looking for owed him money and he believed Mr Roberts was "an associate".

Paul Cleasby, for Dunn, said his client had a history of depressive illness and had come off his medication, leaving him "somewhat unstable". Dunn was sorry for the trouble he had caused, he added.

Judge David Bryant said he accepted Dunn had a history of psychiatric illness and placed him on a two-year community rehabilitation order, with a condition that he attend hospital for treatment. He ordered him to pay £250 compensation to Mr Roberts.