A young man from Burkina Faso yesterday faced charges of assaulting police officers - after he mistook them for thieves.

It sounds like the plot of a comedy, were it not for the fact that 18-year-old Issahak Abubaker was the only protagonist and the incident earned him the dear penalty of a one year, suspended jail term.

He was minding his own business in Paceville when he thought he was being ambushed by a group of men who asked to go through his pockets.

Believing they were thieves, he threw his mobile phone, to the ground to make sure they did not get hold of it, and instantly threw a couple of punches, hitting one of them.

The hitch was that the 'thieves' were, in fact, vice squad officers in plain clothes. Even after they identified themselves, he refused to believe them and instead kept throwing punches.

When he was eventually restrained and frisked, the officers found no trace of the drugs they were looking for.

"He was clean," an officer told The Sunday Times. "He really thought they were thieves... policemen have uniforms, he told the inspector."

Mr Abubaker pleaded guilty to the charge.