A DRUG dealer who hit security staff at the Westgate Centre with a metal pole before being caught with 50 wraps of Class A drugs has been spared jail because he was only 16.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday to be sentenced for charges of affray, possession of an offensive weapon and two of possession with intent to supply cocaine.

The court was shown CCTV footage of the brawl which began outside the Superdry clothing store at 12.40pm on April 26.

Cameras showed members of the public look on as the boy, together with an unnamed accomplice, appeared to hurl an item at security staff as they descended the centre escalator.

Two guards then chased the pair and a fight broke out with one executing a flying kick while the throng of onlookers swelled.

The fight went on for some minutes before the teenagers eventually exited the centre while a team of security staff stood blocking the entrance.

It was then, as the fight appeared to be over, that the 16-year old returned with a long metal pole, described as ‘about three feet’ long, and stuck one guard over the back of the head.

Their patience at an end, the guards then swarmed after him and he was duly arrested by police. On searching him they found a haul totalling 50 wraps of Class A drugs.

Defending, Francis Howard urged the court for leniency because of the boy's young age and said that his dealing was a result of ‘pressure’.

Sentencing Judge Simon Wilkinson said: “If you were an adult you would be looking at four to five years in total. These were serious offences.”

He said he would take the ‘exceptional’ course of sparing jail ‘first and foremost’ because of his young age, and gave the boy an 18-month supervision order and ordered him to obey a curfew.