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Police find 11-year-old boy towing caravan along the M1

Friday, 8 March 2024 02:00

Police stopped a BMW X5 towing a suspected stolen caravan yesterday and were staggered to find an 11-year-old child at the wheel.

Police find 11-year-old boy towing caravan along the M1 Police stopped a BMW X5 towing a suspected stolen caravan yesterday (Thursday) and were staggered to find an 11-year-old child at the wheel. At around 3.30pm on 7th March, police received a call that a caravan had been stolen from a caravan holiday site near Thirsk and was being towed away by a black BMW. Officers were able to track the BMW, that was also using cloned registration plates, travelling south on the A1. 45 minutes after the caravan was reported stolen, police stopped the vehicle on the M1 after it left the A1 at Hook Moor Interchange near Garforth. But nothing prepared them for finding the schoolboy sat at the wheel. A search of the car also revealed equipment typically used by suspects to carry out thefts and a selection of vehicle registration plates. The boy was arrested on suspicion of a number of offences including theft, burglary, going equipped for theft, and motoring offences including dangerous driving. He was questioned and has been released on conditional police bail to allow further enquiries to be carried out. A police spokesperson said:

"Thanks to the quick work of our skilled roads policing officers, our control room and intelligence team working in the background, the rightful owners have been updated that their caravan had been found.

No-one was injured during the incident. Read more local stories from Your Harrogate here.

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