A motorist who narrowly avoided causing a head-on crash near Blaenplwyf had overtaken a police officer in an unmarked car and was caught on camera.

Glen Wells, 61, admitted a “misjudgement” when he overtook a van and a police car on the A487 on 13 June, with a court hearing that his wife, a former driving instructor, had told him he should not have carried out the overtaking manoeuvre.

Wells, of Dolweddelan, Trefwrgi Road in Goodwick, pleaded guilty to careless driving, with prosecutor Rhian Jones saying that Wells’s overtaking manoeuvre saw him overtake a van and then the unmarked police car.

You can watch footage made available by the CPS below

She said he was just 12 feet from a head-on collision with a car coming the other way when he managed to pull back in.

Ms Jones said the police officer had overtaken the van, before he saw Wells overtake the van and the police car, contravening a solid white line.

In an interview, Wells said he had thought there would be more of a gap between the van and police car for him to pull into and said he had not intended to overtake the police car as well. The driver of the oncoming car said she had to brake heavily and pull her car to the side of the road to avoid what she said could have been a “serious crash”.

Defence solicitor Neil Davies said Wells accepted his driving had been careless, but that he had not intended to overtake the police car, but had found himself in a situation where he had to either do that or try to get back in his lane in front of the van, but that the police car had slowed down after overtaking the van.

Mr Davies said: “At the commencement of the manoeuvre, he had no intention of overtaking the police officer. His intention was to pull in behind the officer and continue at a normal speed.”

Wells, a manager with St David’s Assemblies, was given five penalty points on his driving licence and will pay a fine of £400 and costs totalling £125.