A brazen burglar accused police of lying after being found to be more than four times over the limit after being caught driving a stolen car.
Video footage captures the moment banned driver Billy Stratton was stopped by a police officer who told him the Fiat Punto he was driving was stolen, to which the 22-year-old replied "mad that".
He then refused to believe he had blown 150 at the roadside, saying: “I never blew 150. You're lying. Let me do it again.”
The officer responded: "Right there 150, on my life."
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He was arrested on the A47 near Wisbech on March 5 after he was caught driving a car he had stolen from Lawn Avenue, Great Yarmouth, the previous evening when helped himself to a set of car keys.
Billy Stratton was stopped in stolen Fiat Punto on A47 near Wisbech (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)
Billy Stratton was stopped in stolen Fiat Punto on A47 near Wisbech (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)
When he got out of the driver’s seat and smelt strongly of alcohol, Stratton was arrested on suspicion of theft of a motor vehicle and possession of cannabis after 24 zip-locked ‘deal’ bags of the drug were found under the front passenger seat.
He blew 150 in a roadside breath test – more than four times the legal limit of 35 – and checks revealed he was disqualified from driving until 2026.
He had been caught on CCTV at a McDonalds drive-through in the town using the stolen car the following night, before heading into Cambridgeshire where he was arrested.
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Billy Stratton was stopped in stolen Fiat Punto on A47 near Wisbech (Image: Cambridgeshire Police)
The video footage shows him begging police for a cigarette, Stratton admitted: ”'Listen I ain't going to lie to you, I'm a banned driver innit.”
Stratton, of Chaucer Road, Great Yarmouth, was sentenced at Norwich Crown Court to a year in prison, suspended for 18 months, after admitting nine offences including burglary, theft, driving while disqualified, driving while unfit and failing to provide.
He was disqualified from driving for four years.
PC Joshua Yeomans, who made the arrest, said: “This was a good case of us being in the right time at the right place, unluckily for Stratton.”
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