THREE teenage tearaways have been warned they face two-year jail sentences if they break antisocial behaviour orders banning them from Romsey town centre.

The trio - Luke Monroe, 14, Martyn Luffman, 14, and 16-year-old Thomas Burgess - have also been barred from contacting each other by Southampton Youth Court judge Lorraine Morgan, who likened the expelled Romsey School pupils behaviour to that of a pack of animals.

The troublemakers - members of the Romsey Boys Krew gang - admitted they were behind a spate of offences, including using threatening behaviour, criminal damage and theft during February and March.

Burgess, who lives at Ampfield's Green Pond Lane, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, theft and two assault charges.

He and his accomplices were involved in a food and drink theft from a crate outside Bradbeers department store and a bottle of wine from Wine Rack in the town centre. The teenage yob was also involved in an incident where two male teenagers walking along Romsey's canal path were punched. Luffman, of Mercer Way at Cupernham, admitted handling stolen goods, harassment, threatening to damage property and being in possession of cannabis.

And Monroe, of Fulford Road at North Baddesley, pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods, causing criminal damage, theft, using threatening behaviour and causing a nuisance. He also daubed graffiti on the entrance lobby at Romsey's Lloyds TSB bank and tore up paying-in envelopes at the Market Place premises.

The teenage tearaway was also caught running through the grounds of Romsey School taunting teachers while lessons were in progress. Monroe also stole a sausage roll from the Co-op's Dukes Mill branch, after claiming he was hungry.

The judge told the teenagers: "You behaved like a pack of animals. You behaved selfishly, childishly and thought of nobody but yourselves. It's because of that behaviour that you are before the courts."

After telling the yobs that they faced two years' imprisonment if the ASBOs were broken, the judge added: "If you think you have got away with a lot in the past, you will not get away with anything in the future."

Romsey's police chief Inspector Peter Funnel, who led the crackdown on the yobs, said he was glad the judge issued the ASBOs.

"These three have been responsible for the overwhelming majority of problems in the town centre. They have been wandering around the town during the day out of control, causing mindless damage and committing thefts," he said.

"They intimidated people by shouting at them in the town and encouraging others to behave in an antisocial way."