A teenager who got a lift in a stolen car has been released on appeal after spending 23 days in custody.

Daniel Cole, a 17-year-old father of one, was later found by police hiding under a caravan at his mother's address, Worcester Crown Court was told.

He tried to break into cars with friends while drunk and also rode pillion on a motorcycle stolen from a street in Kidderminster.

Cole, of Whittall Drive East, Birchen Coppice, Kidderminster, was sentenced to a six-month detention and training order by town magistrates earlier this month.

But recorder James Sampson freed him and substituted a year's community order with 80 hours' unpaid work.

He said Cole had deep and personal difficulties and was ill-equipped to deal with custody.

Cole pleaded guilty to allowing himself to be carried in a Metro stolen in Washington Street, Kidderminster, two counts of interfering with cars and taking a motorcycle without consent.

The Metro was abandoned in Cole's street and police chased three youths, said Peter Tooke, prosecuting. Police dogs located Cole under the caravan.

Police were also alerted to three men trying to get into cars in Stourbridge.

Cole said he was having a lark and claimed his drinks had been spiked.

He and another friend took the motorbike from a Kidderminster street, pushed it into an alley and started it. Cole was arrested the same night.

Tom Challinor, defending, said the crimes were committed on impulse through boredom. Cole had been badly damaged by events in the 1990s - which were not made public in court - and had no education after the age of 13.

He had used drugs and suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.