A TEENAGE girl robbed a pensioner at a cashpoint because she needed money to feed her cat, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Kim Hardwick targeted a 72-year-old as she collected £200.

But she only got a few yards in High Street, Stourport, before passers-by stopped her and held her until police arrived.

The 19-year-old had her own purse stolen a few days earlier, owed £5, and had no state benefit cash left to buy cat food, said defence counsel Nicolas Cartwright.

Hardwick, of Old Ford Walk, Stourport, admitted robbery and was sentenced to 21 months detention.

Prosecutor Graeme Simpson said she was motivated by a desperation for money. She was in breach of a conditional discharge for shoplifting three pairs of trainers.

Hardwick had been an outpatient at Kidderminster Hospital for the treatment of depression after the breakdown of a relationship.

Judge Ian Morris said it had been a robbery in broad daylight in a public street and the message had to go out that detention was the only fit sentence.