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A man who told police that a prostitute was in his car as she was showing him where to buy tomatoes has been found guilty of kerb crawling.

The known sex worker was spotted in Wednesbury Road, Walsall , sitting in a Nissan Micra apparently waiting for the driver to return from a nearby cash point.

As he drove away police followed the 39-year-old security guard into Wallows Lane where he was stopped and arrested on suspicion of soliciting.

In interview the Dudley man denied the allegations and told police that he had withdrawn £20 from the cash point and had been trying to find somewhere to buy tomatoes.

The married man was fined £400 and ordered to pay £665 costs after being found guilty of soliciting at Walsall Magistrates Court.

PC Stacey Paterson, from Walsall police, said: "I’ve heard some excuses before but in the 10 years that I have been a police officer I have never heard a kerb crawler covering up his crimes by claiming to be buying tomatoes!

"Our officers and the courts saw through his lies and the man has now been found guilty.

The man’s conviction is the latest in West Midlands Police’s Operation Scarlet ? a continuing crackdown on kerb crawlers.

In June and July this year eight suspected kerb crawlers were stopped and given warnings not to attend the area again or face being arrested.

Two women were also arrested on suspicion of being sex workers and 11 street warnings have been issued to other women. If a sex worker receives three street warnings they are taken to court.

A 55-year-old woman was jailed for four months after being found guilty of managing a brothel on Midland Road in Walsall. The brothel was closed by police in November 2012.

And a 28-year-old woman currently remains on police bail following a raid on a suspected brothel on Darlaston Road, Darlaston, in June.