A DRUNK man’s racist insulting of a police custody officer earned him a night in a cell and a £155 court bill.

It was the latest in a series of racially aggravated public order crimes by Keith Alan Turner, 54, York magistrates heard.

Cathy Turnbull, prosecuting, said Turner swore repeatedly at police who answered a call from the public to deal with a man collapsed by the pavement at Heworth Green at 3pm on Tuesday.

They arrested him for being drunk and disorderly and when they took him to the custody suite at Fulford Road Police Station, he called the custody officer a racist name.

His solicitor Craig Robertson said: “He has an issue with alcohol and he has issues with his mouth when he is drunk.”

Turner, of Ripon Close, York, pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly, and being racially abusive and was fined £50 plus a £20 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs. Magistrates said they took into account police had kept him in custody between his arrest and his appearance in the courts the following morning.