A man has been fined more than £1,000 after trying to pass his Renault Megane off as an emergency ambulance.

Shaun Scandle, 31, of Hexham, also received nine points on his driving licence for the incident on September 9th.

To the traffic cameras, Mr Scandle’s phoney ambulance was a pretty convincing effort and it only attracted attention because of how fast it was weaving through rush hour traffic at the Tyne Tunnel.

The imposter was finally outed when North East Ambulance Service revealed to local police that they had no blue light vehicles in the area at that time.

When officers finally caught up with Mr Scandle, they found his Megane covered in bright neon livery like a rapid response vehicle.

It emerged that the man also ran a medical business offering first aid at events and had recently provided first aid for the Tour of Britain cycle race.

Appearing at North Shields Magistrates Court, Mr Scandle felt his case had some validity but eventually changed his plea to guilty to escape a lengthy driving ban. In addition to the fine and penalty points, a judge also ordered him to destroy the equipment used to create the fake ambulance.

Assistant sergeant Alan Keenleyside of the Operations Department said Mr Scandle was lucky to avoid a driving ban.

“This may seem like a bizarre story but the reality is Mr Scandle was putting lives at risk through his behaviour on the road,” he commented.

“Hopefully he will think twice about his behaviour on the roads following his sentence at court.”