Police are being urged to investigate a possible case of sabotage after a weekly newspaper advert was amended to include an obscenity.

The Pembrokeshire Herald published an advert for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, pictured below, which included an expletive in a list of services provided by the company.

Newspaper bosses have written to police about the advert, saying they believe it to have been doctored by an unauthorised person.

The Herald was launched earlier this month and is published by Milford Haven-based MegaGroup Pembrokeshire Ltd, which also runs the area’s free local monthly magazine Best.

The title has now apologised to readers after the advert was published in the 19 July edition, which had a print run of 20,000 and remained on sale after the amendment was discovered.

Other adverts in the edition were also changed as the paper was waiting to go to print, although only the Enterprise one contained an obscenity.

Publisher Tom Sinclair told readers: “A number of adverts in last Friday’s newspaper had additional copy inserted into them after they had been proofed and signed off.

“The extra copy contained language that was inappropriate for a family newspaper like ours.

“I would like to make it absolutely clear that the adverts were altered without the knowledge of our advertisers or this newspaper.

“The pages had been signed off and were ready to go to print. I would like to apologise to our readers and advertisers for any distress caused.”

He told HTFP he did not believe the incident would damage the newly-launched paper and said the Enterprise advert had been republished at twice the size the following week to apologise to the company.

The error in the advert also caught the attention of TV presenter Jeremy Vine, who tweeted about it, asking if it was ‘for real?’

A spokesman for Dyfed Powys police said it had yet to receive the letter from the Herald’s publishers.