A car fire on the M4 proved a great opportunity for Wiltshire Police's Roads Policing Unit (RPU) to catch other drivers committing crimes. 

Multiple emergency service agencies responded to the smoking vehicle on the motorway between Junction 14 (Hungerford) and Junction 15 (Swindon) at roughly 3pm on Friday, April 14. 

This included the RPU, who put a post on the Wiltshire Specialist Operations Twitter page, a social media account dedicated to providing updates on their exploits. 

In the post made an hour after National Highways confirmed that traffic had been completely stopped, officers explained they had managed to catch motorists driving on the hard shoulder while on the way, and had stopped someone using their phone.

The full post said: "A safe resolution, following swift multi-agency work on the scene at this vehicle fire on the M4; by RPU, ARV [armed response vehicles], Highways South West & Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue.

"With TORs issued to people driving on the hard shoulder whilst en route, and a passer-by using their phone whilst driving."

One member of the public responded to it by criticising the RPU for not concentrating on getting the road reopened fully following the fire.

But the force firmly responded with: "This [was] a multi-agency incident, police had done their initial role of protecting the scene, whilst fire were cooling the vehicle we were at a loose [end] and couldn’t help but spot people on the phone etc.

"No doubt you would have an issue if we were just ‘standing around’."