A VAPE shop owner in Worcester says the teenager who smashed one of his windows has only been given “a slap on the wrist”.

Andrew Connellan, who runs Connect2Vapes in Broad Street, was reacting to the news that Amber Randall, who threw a rock through the shopfront window in June last year, has been given a conditional discharge and told to pay him £150, after admitting criminal damage.

But Mr Connellan had to spend £300 to replace the window and then around £700 more to upgrade his security as the attack left him feeling his shop was vulnerable.

He said: “It is a slap on the wrist but I am not surprised. The more we do this nicey-nicey stuff with offenders, the worse it gets. If we do get compensation, that will be a bonus.

“It is hard enough for shop owners as it is with shops closing – we have had to spend more money buying cameras and lights and fixing the window.

“We reckon the cost all-in was the best part of £1,000. The window itself cost £300, then we had the lights and cameras to go with it.

“The other aspect of it is time – it is time I could have spent doing something more positive.

“We have had another incident like this in the meantime where a young lad came and kicked our window.”

Randall appeared before magistrates in Worcester on February 20 charged with criminal damage after she admitted she had thrown a rock through the window.

Two brothers were also charged in relation to the incident, but they were not in court on the same day.

A warrant was issued for Jack Bennett, who failed to attend his hearing at Worcester Magistrates, while his brother James is due to appear before magistrates in Telford to face the charges on February 28.

The court heard how Randall, who was 17 at the time of the offence, had been walking through the city with two other people at around 1am on the morning of June 12 last year.

CCTV images show two members of the group throwing rocks at the window before moving on.

At this point, Randall returned to the shop and threw another rock at the window.

She voluntarily attended a police interview and admitted she had thrown the rocks, saying she felt she had to because she would be stabbed otherwise.

Despite this, the interviewing officer told her she had returned to the scene after her two accomplices had moved on, so she couldn’t have been acting under duress.

Mark Lister, representing Randall, said: “You will notice from her record that her only other offence is for two thefts on November 14 last year. This offence predates that one.

“Amber is 18 now and the two others involved were young men she’d known only for a couple of days.

“They were a poor influence on her, it was their idea to do it, and she rather foolishly went along with it.

“She was only adding to the damage already done as the window was already broken.”

Magistrates gave Randall a six-month conditional discharge, as well as ordering her to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £130 in compensation.