An 11-year-old British boy, the youngest person to face prosecution over the recent riots in London, was yesterday sentenced to a community order for stealing a waste bin during the unrest.

The schoolboy took the waste bin worth £50 (€55) from the Debenhams department store from the northeast London suburb of Romford on August 8 after a gang smashed the shop windows. A police officer spotted the youngster, whose name cannot be disclosed due to restrictions on reporting cases of under-18s, reaching inside to grab the object which had been on display in the window.

Judge John Woollard, passing sentence at Havering Magistrates’ Court, handed the boy an 18-month youth rehabilitation order, a sentence carried out in the community which is commonly given to young offenders.