Officers in North Yorkshire stopped a BMW X5 towing a suspected stolen caravan on Thursday March 7 and were “staggered” to find an 11-year-old child at the wheel.At around 3.30pm, North Yorkshire 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.

In a statement, the force said: “We 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, we stopped the vehicle on the M1 after it left the A1 at Hook Moor Interchange near Garforth.

At around 3.30pm, North Yorkshire 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.

“But nothing prepared us for finding the school-boy 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, police said.

The statement continued: “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.”

Police officers stunned after pulling over BMW X5 on the M1 and finding 11-year-old behind wheel

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