Patient stole bus to get home

A psychiatric patient who discharged himself and then stole a bus to get home, claimed he stopped to collect passengers, said police.

The man, who has not been named, signed himself out of a unit at a nursing home in Aberystwyth, west Wales, and made off in an empty single-decker bus.

A spokesperson for Dyfed-Powys Police said the matter was not being pursued because of the person's mental state of health.

The patient had told police officers that he had stopped the bus to pick up passengers, but this has not been confirmed.

He drove the bus for 10 miles along the coast to the resort of Aberaeron, claiming he stopped to collect passengers.

He told police where he had abandoned the bus.

The man has now been readmitted to a psychiatric unit in Aberystwyth.

A spokeswoman for Arriva, which owns the bus, said one of its 25-seater Midi buses had been taken from the company's depot in the town.

"There were no passengers aboard at the time and no damage was done to the vehicle," she said.