A HOMELESS Dudley man squandered a chance to keep his freedom for robbing a teenager of his mobile phone.

Sean Stewart, aged 22, had been given a community order for the offence when he first appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Stewart was hauled back before a judge after he failed to keep appointments which were part of the conditions of the order.

Steward admitted breaching the order and Judge John Warner told him an immediate custodial sentence now had to be imposed before jailing him for six months.

The court was told Stewart had to move out of his Lower Gornal home, where he was living at the time of the original offence, because of drug debts run up by another man and since then he had been sleeping at a church in the area.

Stewart - now of no fixed address - had admitted robbing the 17-year-old victim with an accomplice and he was described by his barrister, Christopher O'Gorman, as a frightened young man.

He told the judge that Stewart was someone who had problems dealing with the difficulties he encountered.