FIVE tearaway youngsters who committed more than 300 offences between them in two years have been served with Lancashire's first interim anti-social behaviour orders.

Brothers Sean O'Callaghan, 12, and Liam O'Callaghan, 13, William Penman, 16, Steven Kennedy, 17, and Lee Nolan, 14, all from Nelson, are said to have caused chaos in Pendle during the last couple of years.

Police applied to the court for Anti-Social Behaviour Orders for all five after they were involved in offences such as burglary, theft, car theft and aggravated car theft, being drunk and disorderly, criminal damage, public disorder and intimidation.

The interim orders will last until March 17, 2003, but another hearing will take place on January 8, 2003, at Burnley Magistrates' Court in relation to a full ASBO for all five of them.

These are the first interim orders to be served in Lancashire and only the second in the country. Sue McLane, representing Lancashire Police, told the magistrates that the orders were being applied for to protect the public and make them feel reassured.

She said: "The anti-social behaviour displayed by these boys has a damaging effect on the honest, law abiding citizens of the community.

"I ask for an urgent interim order to protect the public from them because they have been causing mayhem and misery for some considerable time.

"All the boys associate with each other and commit crimes together and the sanctions in the past have had no effect on their behaviour."

She said all five had been persistent offenders for a number of years and the application for the orders had been made after consultation between local authority liaison officer PC Karen Fitzpatrick, Nelson Police Sergeant Karen Edwards, the local authority, social services, education welfare and the Youth Offending Team.

Mrs McLane said Kennedy was released from Lancaster Farms young offenders' institute a couple of hours before the hearing and Liam O'Callaghan was in the care of social services at Fylde and had been granted a week's leave for Christmas.

Sean O'Callaghan, who she described as "probably the most frequent offender", is in secure accommodation.

But she said he had absconded from various homes in which social services had placed him and committed more offences, regularly breaking bail and curfew conditions.

Penman is in Lancaster Farms young offenders' institute and is due for release on January 5 and Nolan was due for release from the care of social services in Fylde in January but had a court order to extend it to June.

The order prevents the boys from:

l Associating in a group numbering greater than five people in public.

l Associating or being in the company of each other, except in the case of the two brothers, who can see each other.

l Causing alarm, harassment or distress to any person.

l Inciting or encouraging any other person to engage in anti-social behaviour.

l Throwing any objects at any person, animal, property or building.

l Causing physical harm, assaulting, abusing or threatening or intimidating any person.

l Causing damage or attempting to cause damage to any property.

l Stealing or attempting to steal or allowing himself to be driven or carried in a stolen vehicle.

Mrs Lane said the first four conditions were particularly relevant to the five boys and the fifth and sixth conditions were also important as all five were all prolific in vehicle crime.

Nelson councillor Colin Waite, who is chairman of the Nelson Committee and Pendle Police Forum, said: "I have come across some of these boys and their associates and they can be very intimidating and threatening."

Leader of Pendle Council, CounAzhar Ali, said: "This shows that action can be taken to try tostop persistent young offenders who think they are outside the law and bring them to court and put in conditions to prevent it happening again. This is one of the biggest problems we face as a local authority. We get complaints at every area committee from right across the borough in relation to anti-social behaviour and this is just one of the different types of action we can take.

Solicitors representing the boys had applied for the hearing to be adjourned in the absence of Sean O'Callaghan, Penman and Nolan, who they said were unable to get to court.

They said there had been insufficient time to take directions from their clients and it would not be a fair hearing to go ahead without the three boys being present.

PS Edwards said: "It sends out the message to the community that courts will not tolerate anti-social behaviour. The interim order is as effective as the full order and any breaches of the terms constitutes a criminal offence.

"These lads have been responsible for a high proportion of crime in Pendle."