A drunken pensioner threatended to squash a policeman’s head during a boozy picnic.

Raymond Sayce, 67, and his girlfriend were asked to stop drinking by police community support officers who saw them on Brighton seafront on July 1.

But when the officers took away a bottle of wine and can of beer and poured them down a nearby drain the pensioner lost his temper.

He shouted out: "How about I squash your head down that drain."

The officers believed he was acting aggressively and when he clenched his fists he was arrested.

At Brighton Magistrates Court Sayce, from Tooting, London, admitted using words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He also admitted failing to answer his bail when he was required to return to Brighton police station.

Dawn Walmsley, prosecuting, said the alcohol was seized by the officers as the seafront is in a designated zone where the police have powers to prevent people drinking in public.

Sayce said: "I thought it was normal to have a bottle of wine and a can of beer with a picnic. I didn't know you could not drink on the beach. I didn't see any signs."

He added: "We were inebriated."

Sayce was given a 12-month conditional discharge and fined £50 plus £43 costs.