A brazen drink driver pulled up alongside police at a petrol station – with an open bottle of wine on his front seat.
He pulled up alongside the police car to fill up his car, but officers soon became suspicious.
Cameron Mayes, 23, has been banned from the roads following the idiotic error on January 9.
Despite his vehicle stinking of cannabis and a half-consumed bottle of plonk on his front seat, he still decided to stop and get fuel next to two PCs.
The officers soon became suspicious when they smelled drugs and began chatting to Mayes.
The officers very quickly spotted the wine in clear view on the passenger seat.
Mayes was driving a white Ford Fiesta in Ely, Cambridgshire, when he visited the Ely BP filling station at about 10.30pm.
Mayes, of Headleys Lane, Witcham, Ely, admitted he’d been drinking and agreed to carry out a roadside breath test, which he failed.
A later breath test at a police station gave a reading of 49 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath – over the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.
Checks revealed Mayes had also previously lost his licence after he was banned for one year and three months in January 2022.
The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to drink driving at the first opportunity and at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on January 30 he was fined £200 and disqualified from driving for three years.
PC James Lewis, who investigated for Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said: ‘Mayes was brazen and it’s shocking to believe he chose to pull up alongside uniformed officers in a police car, with an open bottle of wine in the front of his car.
‘In doing so, he paid a lot more for the fuel than he realised.
‘He was arrested as soon as we suspected things were not quite right.
‘If he was not stopped when he was, the consequences could have been much worse.
‘Thankfully, magistrates have now banned him from the county’s roads for three years.
‘Drink driving will not be tolerated and truly risks lives; there’s a reason it is one of the fatal five causes of collisions on our roads.
‘I’d also like to remind people they can help us make our roads safer by reporting others they suspect of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs.
‘We have a dedicated hotline and all calls are taken in confidence. You don’t have to be sure, but one call could save a life.’