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Walsall magistrates found themselves strangely unconvinced by a Dudley man's claim that a prostitute found in his car was helping him buy tomatoes.

Coppers eyeballed the "known sex worker" in Muhammad Ikhlaq's Nissan Micra in Walsall on 9 May, "apparently waiting for the driver to return from a nearby cash point", as the Birmingham Mail explains.

When the 39-year-old man, of New Road, Dudley, got back to the car and drove off, officers followed. They then pulled him over and slapped on the cuffs, they told the paper.

Under questioning, Ikhlaq explained he'd taken out 20 quid and was "trying to find somewhere to buy tomatoes".

Walsall plod's PC Stacey Paterson said: "I've heard some excuses before but in the 10 years that I have been a police officer I have never heard a kerb crawler covering up his crimes by claiming to be buying tomatoes."

Walsall Magistrates Court found Ikhlaq, of New Street, Dudley, guilty of soliciting. He was slapped with a £400 fine, and ordered to pay £665 costs. ®

Bootnote

Thanks to Dan Glynhampton for the heads-up, or should that be heads-down?

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