This is the moment a burglar who was caught driving a stolen car while four times over the alcohol limit brazenly tells officers ‘you’re lying’ when they told him he failed the breath test.
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.’
Stratton was arrested near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, on March 5 after he was caught driving a car he had stolen from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk the previous evening.
Just after 11pm, response officers on patrol in Wisbech heard over their radio that a suspected stolen car was travelling on the A47 from Thorney towards Guyhirn.
The officers spotted the grey car drive by them on the A47 at Guyhirn, so spun around to catch up with it while witnessing it swerving across lanes and almost colliding with oncoming traffic.
The police car’s blue lights were activated, signalling for the driver of the Punto to pull over, which it did.
Stratton, who got out of the driver’s seat and smelt strongly of alcohol, 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.
Officers approached Stratton in the Fiat Punto to tell him it had been reported as stolen
He had stolen the car from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk the day before
In response to officers telling him the car was stolen, Stratton replied: ‘Mad that’
He was further arrested after he blew 150mg of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath in a roadside breath test – more than four times the legal limit of 35mg – and a check on the Police National Computer (PNC) revealed he was disqualified from driving until 2026.
After begging for a cigarette, Stratton admitted: ‘Listen I ain’t going to lie to you, I’m a banned driver innit.’
He then does a roadside breathalyser test.
‘Tell me what I blew,’ he nags the officer as he waits for the result.
‘You blew 150 mate, the legal limit is 35, 150 that ain’t good,’ he replies.
Stratton replies: ‘I never blew 150.’
‘Mate, right there, 150 on my life,’ the officer says.
Stratton snaps back: ‘You’re lying. Let me do it again,’
He then refused to believe he had blown 150 at the roadside, saying: ‘I never blew 150’
He added: ‘You’re lying. Let me do it again’
Norfolk Police revealed that Stratton had entered a home in Great Yarmouth the previous evening via an unlocked door and helped himself to a set of car keys before driving off in the Fiat Punto.
He was 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.
Stratton, of Chaucer Road, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, appeared at Norwich Crown Court on Thursday July 11 where he was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for 18 months, and disqualified from driving for four years after previously admitting nine burglary, theft, drug and driving offences.
He must complete a 10-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR), 120 days alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement.
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.
‘Through joint working with our colleagues in Norfolk, we were able to secure multiple charges against him and put him before the courts, resulting in him being required to complete a number of conditions to support him and hopefully steer him away from crime.’
