A TEENAGER who stole a bike from a 15-year-old boy has been given a supervision order.

Dean McGinn was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday.

The 19-year-old was originally charged with robbery but admitted one charge of theft over the incident in Witney on September 29 last year.

McGinn, of Judd’s Close in the town, had denied using any force to steal the Mongoose Fireball bicycle.

Charles Ward-Jackson, prosecuting, said the boy the bike belonged to had been pushed in the incident but the prosecution would accept McGinn’s basis of plea that he asked to borrow the bike and only then chose to steal it.

The bicycle, which had been bought from eBay for £150, was stolen near the Co-op supermarket in Madley Park at about 6.30pm. It has never been recovered.

The court was told McGinn, who studies at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College and works on alternate weeks, had no previous convictions but was given two cautions in 2006 for assault.

Recorder Steven Gasztowicz sentenced him to 12 months’ supervision and ordered him to pay £150 compensation and £200 costs.

He said: “You did a very silly thing.

“It was more than silly, it was bad. And bad for the victim who lost his bike.”