Patient found in cold

An elderly dementia sufferer who drove off in his wife's car while she was visiting the dentist was found wandering in freezing temperatures near the Hilltop on Banks Peninsula early yesterday.

Senior Constable Steve Ditmer, of Akaroa police, said an Akaroa man driving home from Little River about 12.45am came across the 78-year-old man's stationwagon parked on the wrong side of the road on the Akaroa side of the Hilltop.

- NZPA, STAFF REPORTERS