A JUDGE told a troubled teenager as he jailed her for five years: “There is more to life than drinking, taking drugs and committing offences.”

Bernice Chance had resorted to her old ways within days of being released from behind bars.

High on drink and cannabis, the 19-year-old robbed a supermarket, attempted to rob two other people in the street and shattered a florist’s window – all on the same evening.

She ignored a court order to enter the Co-op near her home where she pointed an air pistol at a 16- year-old assistant, asking the terrified girl whether she thought it was fake.

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She then grabbed ten bottles of cider and some beer and walked out, pushing away a middle-aged woman member of staff who tried to stop her.

Prosecutor Richard Withey told Southampton Crown Court the girl had given given up her job because she was too frightened to return.

As Chance walked along the road, she asked a man standing at a bus stop for a cigarette.

When he said no, she began using words like “blood” and pulled the gun out of her right sock, pointing it at the man’s face and waving it from side to side.

“He looked shocked and leant backwards,” said Mr Whithey.

She then demanded cigarettes and money from another woman in the street. When Christine Staley, went to ring her husband, Chance said she had “a piece” and demanded respect, leaving the victim to fear she was going to be struck about the face with the gun. “She says she was really anxious, panicky and very frightened.”

Later, she repeatedly banged the weapon against the florist’s window, shattering the glass.

Chance, of Cheriton Avenue, Thornhill, admitted the offences as well as being in breach of an Asbo, and in addition to the jail term, received a four year extended licence.

Passing sentence, Judge Tom Longbotham referred to a psychiatric report that described the teenager as having “a markedly unusual personality” and “unstable mood swings”. Her life existing around drinking cider, taking drugs and offending and she acted without thinking of the consequences on other people.

Defence barrister Richard Onslow said Chance accepted her offending had been “completely outrageous and unacceptable.”