A man caught with a hoard of police equipment in his car had previously been fined for wearing the wrong ambulance uniform in public.

Miley Byrne’s Citroen Saxo was searched after police investigated reports of a vehicle driving through Copford with blue lights flashing.

Officers found equipment inside, including handcuffs and an extendable baton.

Colchester Magistrates’ Court was told Byrne had been fined 18 months earlier for wearing clothing at a speedway track which suggested he was a paramedic, when he was simply working with St John Ambulance.

Yesterday, the 21-year-old was ordered to do 60 hours unpaid work and pay £70 costs. At an earlier hearing, Byrne, of Challis Lane, Braintree, had admitted impersonating a police officer.

Read full article: Gazette