A potential police recruit has helped save the life of a man in distress, who was contemplating harming himself in the water off the North Shore.
Competitive swimmer Nick Prendergast was riding along in a police car to experience what being a police officer was all about on March 17.
That night police were called to the beach area between Milford and Takapuna to help a man who had swam more than 200m into the tide.
Police say they arrived within minutes but the could not spot the man from land.
Prendergast swam out to find the man and waited for Constable Joshua Cadwallader to join him before bringing the man safely ashore.
