A DRINK-driver who was stopped as he left an illegal rave on Dartmoor tried to fool police by pretending to be a passenger.

Aaron Vincent failed to stop the pick-up truck when he was flagged down by a police officer on an unclassified road at Fernworthy Reservoir near Chagford, in July last year.

Police pursued and stopped the truck but by the time they got to it, Vincent had climbed into the back seat. Bodycam footage showed his three passengers getting out at the same time.

Vincent denied he had been driving but the policeman who stopped him told magistrates: ‘The driver had clearly seen me, he was looking directly at me.

‘Three people walked away but the driver by that time remained in the back seat. That was the person I arrested.’

Vincent was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and later blew 53mg of alcohol in his breath – the legal limit is 35mg.

Exeter magistrates were shown police bodycam footage of the incident and the police officer insisted the driver was Vincent.

Vincent, aged 29, of Hope Close, Totnes, denied drink driving and failing to stop for a constable.

The JPs convicted him saying the officer’s evidence was believable saying he automatically discarded the other people at the scene as the driver.

Vincent, who chose not to give evidence in his trial, was fined a total of £1,572 and banned from driving for three years.