A DRUG addict impersonated an undercover police officer and fleeced hundreds of pounds from members of the public.

Shelly Anne Hill, 27, approached a female student and a nightclub reveller in Stockton, and pretended to be working undercover.

Teesside Magistrates' Court heard how she stopped Matthew Stanhouse in the Mandale area of Stockton during the early hours of May 3.

She told him he matched the description of a man wanted for rape and that she was a police officer.

She searched him, taking £37 and his mobile phone.

Hill told Mr Stanhouse to wait by the roadside while she made a call for back-up, but then made off.

Peter Milne, prosecuting, told the court that on the same day, at about 10.30pm, Hill struck again. She approached Chiedza Mashamba, a young female student.

Mr Milne said: "Hill told the student she was walking in a red light district and that she was a police officer. She informed the victim she matched the description of a wanted female.

"Miss Mashamba was told she had two options. She could either pay a fine or be photographed and named and shamed."

But the victim became suspicious before Hill made a phone call, telling her it was her "lucky day" and could leave.

In another incident, Hill flagged down Paul Barnes, who had just finished a nightshift on April 30.

She was stood next to a broken down car close to a petrol station in Mandale. As Mr Barnes looked at her car, she stole £270 from his wallet.

In mitigation, Paul Dixon said she committed the offences to feed a drug addiction.

Hill, of Varo Terrace, Stockton, admitted two charges of impersonating a police officer, theft and obtaining property by deception.

Magistrates said the case was so serious she would be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on September 12.