Driver who used smokescreen against police sentenced

Laura Thomson
Updated
A speeding driver who deployed a James Bond-style smokescreen device in a bid to shake off police has been spared jail. Simon Chaplin, 62, rigged a bucket of diesel, a pump and pipes, behind the passenger seat of his Peugeot 309 to produce "colossal" amounts of grey smoke from his exhaust. A court heard "eccentric" Chaplin activated the device when a policeman attempted to pull him over for speeding and covered the carriageway with fumes. Chaplin tried to evade the officer's flashing blue lights but the policeman was simply able to follow the billowing plumes through country roads near Haverfordwest, Pembs. Pictured here is the smokescreen in action © WALES NEWS SERVICE



A speeding driver has been found guilty of causing danger to other road users by using a smoke device to try to evade police.

Simon Chaplin, 62, from Hebron, near Whitland, Carmarthenshire had rigged the device – made from a bucket, pumps and hoses – behind the passenger seat of his Peugeot 309, and activated it when a police officer attempted to pull him over for speeding.

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