News: Fake traffic policeman rumbled when he pulled over the real thing
Who do you think you are ‒ a traffic cop?
A MAN who pretended to be a traffic policeman had a shock when he ordered a driver to stop, only to discover he was a real policeman in an unmarked car.
A court heard how Jonathan Weekes, 48, was driving a rented Vauxhall Insignia when he decided to follow another car. After four miles, and using a blue light he had brought with him, he flashed the driver, ordering him to pull over in Cross Keys, near Newport, South Wales.
Weekes told the driver he had been speeding and said: “If you had been going any faster, I would have booked you.”
But instead of meekly accepting a lecture from the fake cop, the driver asked him what force he was with and what station he was based at. Shocked by the sudden turn of events, Weekes gave a false police number and station location before rushing away in his Vauxhall Insignia, overtaking several cars at speed without his headlights on.
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Police traced Weekes’s Insignia from its registration plates and arrested him at his home in Tredegar. They found the blue light, hidden in his shed, and a collection of police material bought on eBay.
Weekes told Newport magistrates he had a “fascination” with authority figures but couldn’t explain why he had pretended to be a policeman when he pulled over the real police officer in September this year.
He pleaded guilty to acting falsely in suggesting he was a police officer by using a vehicle on a road fitted with a blue warning beacon, or device resembling one used by the police. He also admitted driving without due care and attention.
Weekes was given a 12-month community order and banned from driving for six months. He was told to pay £85 costs and a £60 surcharge.
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