WILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: A 13-year-old boy who made hoax bomb and 999 calls and drove an ambulance between two west Wiltshire towns has been sent to a detention centre to protect the public.

The Bradford on Avon teenager's string of devious crimes were read out at a youth court in Chippenham on Tuesday, and he and his family openly wept as he was sentenced and led away by guards.

Magistrates, who handed out a ten-month detention training order, heard how he had admitted more than a dozen serious charges in the last five months. Specialist psychiatric doctors were called in to assess him, and found he was likely to commit further offences which could endanger lives.

But despite the severity of his crimes, magistrates refused a Wiltshire Times application to lift the boy's anonymity on public interest grounds because of his age and to protect his privacy.

The 13-year-old pleaded guilty to taking an ambulance without consent on February 2, which he drove around Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon with its lights flashing and siren sounding.

The fully equipped emergency vehicle, worth around £70,000, was taken from Trowbridge Ambulance Station.

His adventure ended when he stalled the vehicle after driving it along the main road between Trowbridge and Bradford on Avon in the middle of the afternoon.

He already has previous convictions for theft and criminal damage, and pleaded guilty to making two hoax bomb calls on January 9, when he faked an American accent and told staff at a west Wiltshire school they were all going to die.

His most recent crimes, committed in March and April, included smashing a telephone kiosk window with a hammer, and stealing an ambulance's radio, using it to make fake emergency calls.

During one call, on March 11, he said there had been a shooting in Bradford on Avon.

Just six days later, the boy stole two mobile phones from a school building and again called for an ambulance, claiming someone had been hit around the head with a golf club.

Frank Murphy, prosecuting, said: "He has admitted all matters and although he was aware they were wrong, potentially dangerous, serious and against the law, he thought they were a prank."

Defence solicitor Muriel Wrench, said the boy's actions were down to feelings of isolation and frustration.

She said: "A degree of forethought and planning went into watching the ambulance before taking it, there was forethought in making the hoax bomb calls and there was a degree of forethought before stealing ambulance equipment.

"Reports say he enjoyed the escalating notoriety of his actions, feeling the need to tell people after they occurred.

"There was a total lack of remorse expressed in both reports.

"But he did show fear and remorse this morning. He shut himself in his bedroom and was in floods of tears, maybe realising his day of reckoning was now.

"Perhaps his brazen, confident front is skin-deep after all.

"There has been a steady improvement in his behaviour and he has not committed any offences since April."

Because of the long list of serious crimes, magistrates felt they were left no choice but to send him to a detention centre.

Chairman of the bench Anna Grange said: "We have taken into consideration the early guilty

pleas and the boy's co-operation with the police but custody is a suitable punishment.

"The offences were premeditated and so serious that we feel the public needs protection."

As well as the detention and training order, the teenager was ordered to pay £14 compensation for the broken kiosk window, and will receive penalty points for driving the ambulance without a licence or insurance.