Police dog tracks down suspected drink-driver who fled crash scene
A suspected drink-driver who left the scene of a crash in Ceredigion was arrested after a police dog tracked him down two miles away.
Officers discovered that a car had hit a tree and overturned between Bont and Tregaron on Sunday 25 July, but the driver was nowhere to be seen.
Dyfed Powys Police dog Storm and his handler PC Mike Barnsley used their skills to follow the driver two miles down a nearby path.
PC Barnsley said: “There were concerns that the driver could have been injured due to the significant damage to the car, so a search was immediately launched to find them.
“With PD Storm, I focused on the cycle path running alongside the road, where Storm picked up a track and followed it for around two miles.
“Local response units accessed the cycle path ahead of us, while another unit searched from the main road along an unclassified road in the same direction.”
PC Barnsley and Storm reported a sighting of a man on the cycle path, and he was stopped and arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.
Sergeant David Hawksworth said: “This was an excellent demonstration of teamwork and co-ordination by officers, whose good local knowledge resulted in the suspect being swiftly found and arrested.”