A TEENAGER who drove his car through a Sikh parade containing hundreds of worshippers in Oldbury has been ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work in the community.

The Sikh procession runs every year from West Bromwich to Smethwick and it was interrupted in McKean Road when Jordan Ross drove his Ford Fiesta through the middle of it, said Mr Mark Phillips prosecuting.

He told Wolverhampton Crown Court the 19-year-old got about 150 yards along the road before his car was attacked and he was punched.

The teenager, an accountancy student, then turned the vehicle around and he accelerated back through the crowd and parked at the nearby Railway Inn on Bromford Road.

Mr Phillips told Wolverhampton Crown Court the drama continued when a number of men from the procession arrived to remonstrate with Ross and an off-duty police officer inside the pub advised him to stay indoors for his own safety.

But Ross then grabbed a pool cue and, brandishing the weapon, he gestured at the men to "come on" before police officers arrived to intervene.

Ross of Farnham Road. Handsworth admitted driving dangerously and possessing an offensive weapon and he was further disqualified from driving for a year and placed on Supervision for 12 months.

Mr John Butterfield defending described Ross as a "decent young man" and said it was clear he had behaved foolishly. He stressed no-one had been injured as a result of his driving and at no point did he break the speed limit.

The Sikh parade is one of the biggest in Europe and it follows a route from the Guru Har Rai Gurdware in High Street, West Bromwich to the Guru Nanak Gurdware in High Street, Smethwick.