A constable’s efforts have been praised by a woman who was the victim of road rage.

Onchan resident Christine Roberts has nominated Andy Greaves from the roads policing unit for Isle of Man Newspapers’ Community Police Officer of the Year award, as he went out of his way to help her.

Christine explained: ’I was verbally abused in a car park by a man, who kicked my car door and banged on my window. The man had also told me to "open the doors", which I’d locked.

’My neighbour had seen what had happened, and also felt frightened by him. I didn’t know what to do!

’I later rang the police and Andy came to see me and took a statement.

’He rang me back a few days later and went through some options of what I could do, but I didn’t want to take any further action against the man.

’Andy made me feel much better, as I was absolutely shaken. He went way beyond the call of duty to help me, with care and consideration.’

PC Greaves has worked as a constable in Douglas for seven years and as the traffic officer for three years. This is the first time he has been nominated for the award.

He said: ’I nearly fell out of my chair when I found out about the nomination! All I did was have a nice cup of tea with Christine and talk her through the options of what she could do about the situation, which happened in March last year.

’It’s reassuring knowing that you’ve made a big impact, but I was just doing my job.’

Speaking with Andy about his occupation, he said: ’I’ve always wanted to specialise in traffic duty. It’s a passion of mine and I’m very lucky to have ended up in the role I wanted.

’My role includes investigation of collisions, keeping people safe on the roads and I’m also a forensic collision investigator.

’The roads policing unit works closely with schools, where we give talks about road safety.

’We also meet up with scouting groups around the island and the Autism Initiatives in the Isle of Man, which has a centre in Ramsey.’

â?¢ Nominations have now closed.