A MAN posing as a policeman to con free sex from prostitutes was caught out when stopped by genuine officers, a court was told yesterday.

Police were questioning Michael Walton when the prostitute he was with told them: "You'll know him - he's one of your colleagues."

He was arrested and a search of his home in High Coniscliffe, near Darlington, uncovered police-style clothing, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 40-year-old dressed like a policeman in shiny black boots, clip-on tie, belt with handcuff pouch, a dark ribbed sweater with epaulettes and black trousers, said Christine Egerton, prosecuting.

A regular visitor to Middlesbrough's red light district, he told one 34-year-old prostitute he was unable to pay because he was a policeman, said Miss Egerton.

"He said that in exchange for her sorting him out he would keep the police vice squad off her back," she said.

They then had sex in some bushes. On another occasion, he is alleged to have picked her up in a white van and they again had sex.

Miss Egerton said he also told an 18-year-old prostitute that he was a policeman and that he knew her real name.

He raped her after she refused to have sex - leaving traces of DNA, she told the court.

Three weeks later, Mr Walton picked up another prostitute and was stopped by a genuine police patrol. They traced a former girlfriend, who said he spoke of being in the Metropolitan force. He later worked as a security guard at Rothmans in Darlington, where he also said he had been in the police.

Mr Walton, of The Green, denies raping the teenager on July 24, last year.

He also pleads not guilty to indecently assaulting the 34-year-old between January and June last year, but admits procuring her by false pretences.

The case continues.