Smoker on the Outer

A top Kiwi banker has quit smoking after marooning himself on a Scottish island.

Geoff Spice had smoked 30 cigarettes a day for 43 years and decided he needed a novel way to beat his addiction. He decided a month on the island of Sgarabhaigh in the Outer Hebrides would give him the respite he needed to quit.

The UK-based 56-year-old had recently retired as senior director of NM Rothschild & Sons and had previously run the State Bank of South Australia in Auckland. After quitting life in London's banking world, he set out for a month with just 120 books and the island's sheep for company.

He lasted almost four weeks before bad weather drove him off the island. Sgarabhaigh's owner Dave Hill told a British newspaper that Spice had quit - after cracking his addiction.