A DRUNKEN festive night out landed a man in hot water after he mistook a police officer on duty for a saucy strip-o-gram.

Burnley magistrates heard how friends of Steven David Shepperd told him to expect a strip-o-gram when he got home.

And when he spotted a woman in a police uniform outside the house in Trawden he thought she had arrived ready for action.

Shepperd shouted he wanted to give her oral sex -- but in scenes reminiscent of a classic episode of TV comedy Only Fools and Horses, it turned out the woman was a real police sergeant attending an incident nearby.

In the BBC TV comedy, Del Boy Trotter, played by David Jason, rips open the shirt of a woman PC thinking she is a strip-o-gram at the Nag's Head pub and is horrified to find she is a real police officer.

Shepperd, 39, of Winewall Lane, Trawden, admitted threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. He was fined £50 with £35 costs after the bench heard the officer was astounded and offended by his obscene remarks

The defendant, who told the court his girlfriend was a multi-millionaire, went on: "I was so so drunk. I just can't believe I came out with the words I said."

John Wishart, prosecuting, said the sergeant was standing on the opposite side of the road to Shepperd when he started shouting abuse. He was warned he would be arrested if he carried on and his response was more obscene comments.

Dermot Woodhead, defending, said Shepperd had no recollection of his comments. He had obviously had far too much to drink and his friends had said they were arranging a strip-o-gram for when he got home.

He assumed the officer was the stripper and made wholly inappropriate remarks. The defendant wanted to apologise to the sergeant and accepted he should not have made the comments in any circumstances.