A man fitted his car with flashing lights and wore a high-vis jacket to pose as a policeman and pull over drivers he believed were speeding, a court has heard.

Jonathan Lloyd, 45, was travelling home to Norwich after a trip to Yorkshire when he stopped two vehicles.

He overtook them, putting on red flashing lights fitted to the rear of his car, and forced the drivers to pull over to the roadside. He then approached the motorists, claiming to be a police officer, to criticise their driving.

One of the motorists was a van driver who Lloyd had seen overtaking a lorry in front of him. He followed after him before pulling the van over in a layby on the A17 near Spalding.

Lloyd, of Westacre Drive in Norwich, continued on his journey and stopped the second vehicle, a Mini, at Sutton Bridge.

Both motorists stopped by Lloyd were suspicious of him and later contacted police.

Appearing at Norwich Crown Court on Friday, he was given a suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to imitating a police officer.

He also admitted speeding himself on six occasions during the same journey, on March 19 this year.

The court heard that police seized his dashcam that showed him donning a police style hi-vis jacket bearing the words "Dog Handler" when he stopped at a service station.

His car was also fitted with a sign which said it was fitted with Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) technology.

Prosecutor Lori Tucker said the dashcam, which also recorded speed, showed Lloyd doing 87mph on the M62, 92mph on the A1 and 89mph and 97mph on the single-carriageway A17, which has a 60mph limit.

Jonathan Goodman, defending, said: “This is very unusual, in some ways bizarre, behaviour; not the speeding but the desire to admonish other drivers that he perceived were driving inconsiderately.

“Mr Lloyd suffers from both mental health issues and a multiplicity of physical health issues that require conspicuous amounts of pain medication.”

The court heard pre-sentence reports had found Lloyd has Asperger’s syndrome and an emotionally unstable personality that led to childish obsessions, which might have resulted in his behaviour.

Judge Maureen Bacon sentenced him to a suspended seven months jail term and disqualified him from driving for nine months.

“Impersonating a police officer and stopping people on the roads, particularly after dark, is something that could have a dark ulterior motive, however having read the pre-sentence reports I am convinced that is not the case here,” she said.

She said had Lloyd impersonated an officer as a means to stop women who were driving alone at night the sentence would have been much harsher.

She said both drivers stopped had been “left baffled rather than in fear” by his actions.