A 19-year-old youth neglected a community punishment order because his father is dying of cancer, Blackburn magistrates were told.

The bench heard Scot Melia was desperate to see as much of his father as possible before the inevitable happened.

And defence solicitor Jonathon Taylor said his client's hope at the moment was that his father would live to see Christmas.

Melia, of Whitehead Street, Blackburn, admitted breach of a community punishment order and driving with excess alcohol.

The case was adjourned until December 17 for the preparation of pre-sentence reports.

The court heard that Melia still had 150 hours to do and had not done any work since April.

The supervising officer said Melia showed no intention of complying with the order and asked the magistrates to revoke the order and re sentence for offences of affray and police assault.

Mr Taylor said Melia had had a very troubled year following the discovery of his father's cancer.

"He accepts that he has not focused his mind on this order and also that he should have told the probation service the difficulties he was having because of his father's health," said Mr Taylor.

"He knows that he could be looking at a custodial sentence but at the moment all he wants is to be able to spend as much time as possible with his father before the inevitable occurs."