A TEENAGER seen brandishing a knife during a confrontation in a Bradford city centre car park has been locked up for 18 months.

Liam Calvert, 18, was already banned from the area and from congregating in any group of youths after being given a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) in May 2016.

That watch period had been due to end last Saturday, but he will now be under supervision until May 2020 after a fresh two-year order was imposed.

CBOs, introduced in late 2014, are used to specifically deal with repeat offenders indulging in anti-social behaviour, and breaches can result in a five-year prison sentence.

On their use as an effective deterrent, police have previously said: “Anyone who breaches the terms and conditions of their order faces being taken back to court for further action.

“The requirements of each order are specifically set to make sure that those affected by their actions are protected from further harm.”

Prosecutor Stephen Wood said Calvert had been committed to Bradford Crown Court for breaching the terms of the CBO on numerous occasions.

He said that on November 26 last year, PCSOs were called to a group of youths causing “issues” in the McDonalds restaurant on Kirkgate. Calvert was identified via CCTV footage of the disturbance and subsequently arrested.

On December 13, a CCTV operative working for Bradford Council saw footage of two groups of youths, one of which included Calvert, engaging in a fight at the city’s Interchange.

The groups later made their way to a car park in Currer Street, where another argument took place.

The defendant was again seen on CCTV “waving the knife” around during the argument, and when police later came to his flat, he said he had armed himself with a kitchen knife to confront a man who had threatened him with a metal bar earlier that day for allegedly stealing a bicycle.

Mr Wood said that Calvert had also breached the terms of his CBO by entering The Broadway centre on March 5 and 21, offences also committed while on bail.

Calvert, of Hawkshead Close, Bradford, admitted multiple breaches of the terms of his CBO and the possession of a bladed article in a public place.

Rebecca Young, defending, said her client was “ashamed” of his behaviour and acknowledged he had anger management issues.

She said: “He knows he has been stupid on each and every occasion.”

Miss Young added that Calvert should be awarded full credit for his early guilty pleas to the breach matters.

She said he had delayed entering a guilty plea to the bladed article charge until seeing CCTV footage of the incident, to which Judge Jonathan Rose replied: “Because he didn’t know whether he had a knife in his hand.”

Miss Young said Calvert, who the court heard had received referral and training orders for robbery offences as a youth, admitted having the knife but had “no intention whatsoever to use it.”

Judge Rose said that Calvert’s behaviour had “repeatedly disturbed the peace” of people in Bradford.

He told him: “When an order is made by a court, you are to comply with it. You just carry on blithely, you don’t care about the order, you say I just do what I want. You’ve irritated, upset, and disturbed members of the public. You’re going to prison because the public are entitled to have a rest from you.”

On the bladed article offence, Judge Rose added: “It is too easy if you are carrying a weapon to use it. Knives kill.”

Calvert was ordered to serve 18 months in a young offenders institution and abide by the terms of his new CBO on his release. The order will still prevent the defendant from “congregating in a group in public in a manner which causes any person harassment, alarm, or distress”, but his city centre exclusion zone will be widened to include outlying areas including Shipley Airedale Road, Valley Road, and Hamm Strasse.

Judge Rose told him: “Once you have served this sentence you have some big decisions to make. The main help you need is from yourself. Ask yourself, do I want a decent life, or do I want to be in prison. The one thing above everything else is you need to grow up.”