A DRUNKEN detective convicted of terrorising a country pub nearly ended up behind bars when he tried to overturn the verdict.

Det Sgt Paul Whiteley had been fined £550 - equivalent to one-and-a-half weeks wages – and ordered to pay £850 costs when first dealt with by Scarborough magistrates in July.

But when he appealed against the conviction he was given a suspended jail sentence and charged an additional £620 costs - on top of the earlier penalties - for what a judge called the disgraced officer's "aggressive and bullying behaviour".

Whiteley - whose career with West Yorkshire’s murder squad could now be in ruins - jumped up from his seat and ran out the court room.

Recorder Andrew Kershaw and two magistrates, sitting at York, took less than ten minutes to reject Whiteley's appeal against conviction.

The 51-year-old, from Wakefield, had been on holiday with then-partner Claire Hughes, 43, of Fulford Place, York, at a campsite on the Yorkshire coast.

After a morning out in Whitby, they spent a rainy afternoon drinking in the Fylingdales Inn in nearby Fylingthorpe.

They stayed for seven hours and were then spotted staggering towards Ms Hughes' Vauxhall Corsa in the pub car park.

Holidaymaker Carl Sarsfield, 41, from Oldham, was in the pub with girlfriend Paula Crossley, 41, and her 18-year-old autistic daughter Mia, and he told the appeal court the barmaid asked him to stop the pair getting in the car.

But once back in the pub Whiteley tore his shirt off and tossed it on the bar, slurring: "Come on. I can do what I ****ing want. I'm a copper. I will rip your ****ing head off."

Six ft three inch Whiteley slapped shaven-headed Mr Sarsfield in the face calling him "baldy" and "fat face" and they ended up fighting on the floor until they were separated by a bystander.

On being told the police were on the way, Whiteley said: "I am the police. Do what you want. I'm not bothered."

Whiteley said he had been bundled into the back of a police vehicle, placed in a cell, and spent 18 hours in custody at Scarborough police station.

He claimed Mr Sarsfield had attacked him first, adding:"I would never abuse my position as a police officer. "

Dismissing the appeal, the judge ?said: "This was an assault by a police officer in a public place on an innocent member of the public in the presence of children and other people. There are so many aggravating features here.”

He sentenced Whiteley to 28 days custody and said he was only suspending it for 12 months because of his 23 years service as an officer.