A luckless drink-driver ended up red-faced after he stepped into a police car thinking it was a taxi.

Gary McGowan, 27, jumped into the "cab" as he tried to evade police officers.

He was so drunk that he thought the blue beacon on the top of the car was a taxi sign and jumped in, putting his feet up on the dashboard, waiting to be taken home.

It was only when another officer opened the car and told him: "You're in a police car, mate," that McGowan realised his mistake.

Durham traffic police officers Steve Stoker and Stewart Roddam had pulled up at traffic lights in Easington Lane, County Durham, in separate cars.

PC Roddam noticed that the driver of a Peugeot 309 alongside was not wearing a seatbelt and was behaving in a shifty way. When the lights turned to green the car sped off, followed by both police cars. Minutes later, the driver abandoned his car and made a run for it.

PC Roddam, 40, said that when he told McGowan he was in a police car, "he looked a bit shocked and asked 'is it?' I was laughing so much I could hardly put the cuffs on him.

"At least he got a free ride in the end - all the way down to the police station."

McGowan, of Haswell Plough, County Durham, who was three times over the limit, was banned for 18 months and fined £300 plus costs by magistrates.

He declined to comment yesterday.