Driver disguised car as an ambulance to run errands for his wife
Court hears Phillip Lemonheigh disguised a blue Renault Laguna estate car as a first response-style ambulance and then spent three months speeding in it
Phillip Lemonheigh leaving Swansea Crown Court Photo: ATHENA PICTURE AGENCY
By Agency
2:32PM GMT 20 Feb 2015
A driver disguised his car as an ambulance using a flashing blue light as he sped round running errands for his wife.
Phillip Lemonheigh, 59, attached the light to the roof of his estate car and had "emergency response" plastered along the side of the vehicle.
He drove at speeds of up to 73 mph and ran through red lights as he went on trips for his bed-bound wife Noreen in his fake ambulance.
But he was arrested after being flashed by a speed camera and hauled up in front of court accused of dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice.
A judge told Lemonheigh - who arrived at court in a wheelchair - that he had "never come across something so bizarre" in his entire career.
Lemonheigh was a carer for his ill wife and ran errands for her around their home town of Neath, near Swansea, South Wales.
He disguised their blue Renault Laguna estate car as a first response-style ambulance and then spent three months speeding in it and running traffic signals.
A court heard how that he didn't have a licence but he still got behind the wheel of car as he run errands for his wife who suffers from a "chronic medical condition".
But his deception came to an end when he was caught by a speed camera at a notorious accident spot on the A4119 in Llantrisant near Cardiff.
He was recorded running the light almost 24 seconds after it had changed, going at a speed of 73mph in a 50mph zone.
Lemonheigh appeared at Swansea Crown Court where he admitted dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice.
The Renault Megane estate which was made to look like a paramedic's vehicle and driven by Phillip Lemonheigh (ATHENA PICTURE AGENCY)
His sentence was adjourned until next month because he has suffered a heart attack in the last couple of days which has left him in a wheelchair
Judge Peter Heywood said: "I don't think I have ever come across something so bizarre, these clearly are very unusual offences to which you have pleaded guilty.
"As you know the court will be minded to consider a prison sentence and I will be asking for medical and psychological reports to be made."
The judge also imposed an "interim disqualification" to stop Lemonheigh from driving ahead of his sentence next month.
Speaking after the court hearing laughing Lemonheigh admitted that he had been driving the pretend ambulance for three months before "going a bit far".
He said: "I had the words emergency response stuck on the side, I paid a printer £18 to have them put on, I had the car like that for three months.
"I just went a bit far and they caught me.
"I don't think I was doing anything wrong. But each to their own."
Lemonheigh claimed he had been a "volunteer ambulance driver" at the time of the offence.
