Man who posed as police officer to 'arrest' teens sectioned

A fantasist who posed as a police officer to ‘arrest’ teenagers on the street has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Anthony Sacks, 20, carried handcuffs, an earpiece radio attachment and a police-style notebook. In one case he fixed a makeshift blue flashing light to the roof of a car he was driving to pass himself off as a policeman. Manchester crown court heard Sacks toured the streets of Manchester looking for groups of youths. He stopped a 14-year-old boy on Hyde Road, Gorton, and - after finding tobacco in his pockets - handcuffed him, put him in the back of the car and took him home to his mother.

The court heard Sacks went on to ‘interrogate’ the boy’s mother for more than an hour about him smoking and being out late. On another occasion he stopped a 16-year-old on Crayfield Avenue, Levenshulme, before handcuffing him and putting him in his car. He later freed him and said: “Get out of the area or I will ring armed response.” Sacks targeted the same boy the following day, telling him that he would be monitoring his behaviour in the future. Sacks used the fake flashing lights to stop a 17-year-old boy’s car on Birchfields Road. Alaric Bassano, prosecuting, said: “He [the teenager] believed it was an unmarked police car.



“The defendant then requested his name, date of birth and address. He also asked for his insurance details and the defendant recorded these details in a notebook. He allowed him to go, but said he would be contacting his father.” Sacks stopped two more 15-year-old boys in Haughton Green, Tameside, and found a cigarette lighter in one of their pockets after searching them. Mr Bassano added: “He forced one of the boys to sit in his car and drove him home where he spoke to his parents, lecturing them about their son being out late.” The court heard that he contacted the second boy’s mother and ‘proceeded to lecture her about the late hour and her son’s possession of a lighter'.

The offences came to light after parents became suspicious and reported Sacks to the police. Sacks - of Blackbrook Road, Heaton Chapel - pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, kidnapping, fraud, driving a car without due care and attention, and driving-document offences. He was sectioned indefinitely under the Mental Heath Act after medical experts ruled he was suffering from a personality disorder. Judge Andrew Gilbart QC said Sacks committed the offences because of a ‘desire to achieve status as a figure of authority for respect’. He told Sacks: “You held yourself up as a policeman and saw it as your responsibility to bring some discipline into the lives of young people you met on the streets and indeed, their parents. They are serious offences.”