A BONHILL teenager has been told to do unpaid community work as a punishment for setting fire to a car which was parked near her home.

The 16-year-old girl, who can’t be named because of her age, torched the vehicle at a car park in Braehead on March 8.

Sentence had been deferred until Friday for the girl to be of good behaviour, and at a hearing at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, prosecutors said she had not been in any further trouble.

The girl’s lawyer, Stephen McGuire, said his client would have trouble paying compensation to the car’s owner because she had no income apart from pocket money, having been unsuccessful in her applications for work.

Mr McGuire said: “She has taken steps to change the people she associates with and hopes to be in employment sooner rather than later.

“She also seems to be kept on a fairly tight leash.”

Sheriff William Gallacher told the girl: “Had I been dealing with an act of silliness, rather than wanton destruction, I might have said that good behaviour could be the end of it.

“It seems the individual who owned the vehicle sustained a fairly catastrophic loss, just because you decided you wanted to do it.

“But I can’t make an order for compensation when you can’t pay it.”

The girl was told to do 80 hours of unpaid work by mid-January as a punishment.

Sheriff Gallacher warned the teen: “I’ll remember you - and if you are back before me in relation to any further offending the consequences are likely to be severe.”