Driver stopped after travelling from Brighton to Tenby to pick up camper van

A driver has been stopped and fined by police after he travelled bytrain from the south coast of England to west Wales to collect acamper van.

Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were carrying out lockdown checksnear the Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire border as they continue toclampdown on motorists who are flouting the coronavirus lockdown withnon-essential travel.

On Wednesday, they stopped a motorhome as it was travelling on theA477 near Red Roses.

When officers pulled the vehicle over, the driver explained that hewas on his way home - to Brighton.

According to the Pembrokeshire Roads Policing Team, the man had caughta train from Brighton in East Sussex to Tenby in Pembrokeshire onWednesday morning to collect the motorhome.

He was then in the process of driving it back home - a distance ofmore than 270 miles - when he was stopped.

Officers said the driver “freely admitted that this wasn’t essentialtravel” and they reported him for breaching travel restrictionsrelating to coronavirus legislation.

Police continue to stop drivers in west Wales and check their reasonfor travelling is deemed to be essential, as the UK continues to liveunder lockdown measures first imposed more than five weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Dyfed-Powys Police said it had received information aboutpeople intending to travel to west Wales to spend time in holidayhomes in the coming days. It warned anyone considering doing this thatthey would face a fine or even an appearance in court.

On Monday, meanwhile, a young woman was fined after driving fromGloucester to a beach in Aberystwyth, while the day before that twopeople were handed penalty notices after they were caught drivingaround the Begelly area of Pembrokeshire looking to buy a coffee.

On Saturday, a man from Pembrokeshire was stopped by police and toldofficers that he was a key worker, before admitting that he was notand that he was, in fact, just out for a spin.