A prospective tenant who pretended to be a police officer in an attempt to fool a landlord almost ended up in jail.
The landlord became suspicious when he visited his Colchester property in July to collect a tenancy agreement from 23-year-old Simon Lucas. He had listed his employers as Essex Police but the landlord noticed there were spelling anomalies.
He contacted the local police force and discovered they had never heard of Lucas and that another police officer’s name he had given as a superior was made up.
After being arrested, Lucas spent two weeks in custody for breaching the conditions of a community order for an unrelated conviction.
He then appeared before South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court for sentencing, after pleading guilty to impersonating a police constable. The court heard that Lucas, formerly of Kesgrave, had also told his girlfriend he was a police officer.
Magistrates imposed a 14 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. Edward Draper, chairman of the bench, told the defendant that a custodial sentence was appropriate in his case but it had been decided to suspend any jail term for a year. He was also told to complete 100 hours unpaid work.
