A TEENAGER who was spared jail after taking part in a knifepoint robbery lied to probation officers about why she missed an appointment and is now behind bars.

Sharisse Page, 18, claimed she had missed a meeting because she had been arrested for another offence and was in the cells at the police station.

But in reality Page, who was living in a tent in a car park after leaving home, had been detained more than a week earlier than she claimed.

A judge activated the one-year sentence after hearing she had been keen to get away from probation meetings so she could have a drink.

Mark Ashley, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how Page had been put on a 12 month jail term suspended for two years on May 25.

After turning up for the first probation meeting a couple of days later she was given an appointment on June 16, which she missed.

He said: "What she told probation was that she had been arrested for an offence on that particular day, the reason she couldn't attend on June 16 was she had been arrested.

"Enquiries were made by her offender manager. She had been arrested on the 10th, not the 16th. It was quite clear the reason she had given was not correct."

She missed another appointment a few days later and the next day a probation officer saw her outside the magistrates court and gave her the paperwork for her breach.

About a quarter of an hour later he spoke to her solicitor who asked for the document again as she had torn up the original and thrown it to the ground.

She was offered another appointment on July 3, which she also failed to turn up for, meaning she had missed three of the seven she had been given.

"When she has turned up there have been concerns about how much she has had to drink. She has had to leave sessions to get further alcohol," he said.

"They have difficulty getting her to focus as she just wants to get out of the door as soon as she can.

"There are also concerns about her address: rather than living with her mother where she had been she is now, as I understand, living in a tent in a car park with her boyfriend."

Page, of Holbein Court, Grange Park, admitted failing to comply with the terms of the suspended sentence and failing to attend an earlier hearing.

Alex Daymond, defending, said that despite it being a 'pretty comprehensive breach', his client wished to have a chance.

"It appears Miss Page, at this stage, doesn't appear ready to accept the help on offer to her, which is regrettable given her age and her previous convictions," he said.

Jailing her, Judge Peter Blair QC said: "I have got to deal with you for this suspended young offenders' institute sentence Judge Mousley imposed on you, and he required you to do quite a number of things in attending appointments. My hands are tied so I am going to activate that sentence."

Page was spared immediate jail after she and a 17-year-old lad admitted robbing a man of his mobile phone at knifepoint.

The pair had been drinking when they threatened the victim during the attack.