A FORMER soldier hailed a hero after rescuing a policeman from rioting football fans has been given a suspended jail sentence for impersonating a cop.

Manchester magistrates had found jobless Tom Bardsley guilty of posing as a Ministry of Defence police officer to avoid paying for a train ticket.

He hit the headlines when he said he pulled a policeman away from a baying mob of Glasgow Rangers fans when riots erupted in the city last May.

Bardsley, 24, said he feared Pc Mick Regan was 'not going to make it', describing the fans as like a 'pack of wolves who had not been fed for days'.

He said he pushed the fans away and then dragged Pc Regan away to a police van.

Lenient

When he appeared in court for sentence, his lawyer Matthew Wallace asked magistrates to be lenient with his client - a 'bona fide hero' whose bravery had been well documented.

At his earlier trial, he was described as a 'fantasist' after it was said he lied to explain why he did not have a train ticket for a trip between Birmingham and Manchester last September.

The dad-of-one, of Fairhope Court, Salford, first claimed to be a British Transport Police officer, then said he was an MoD officer going to staff the Labour Conference in Manchester.

He was given six months, suspended for two years, and must do 270 hours unpaid work and pay £350 costs.

Bench chairman Vanessa Goldstone said his offence was aggravated by the fact that he had been part-way through an 18-month community order imposed for theft.