Police ‘staggered’ to find boy, 11, driving BMW towing caravan on M1

Police tracked the BMW, which was travelling south on the A1 (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Shocked police stopped a BMW towing a caravan on the M1 in North Yorkshire - only to find it was being driven by an 11-year-old boy.

North Yorkshire Police said it received a call at 3.30pm on Thursday, March 7, reporting that a caravan had been stolen from a site near Thirsk and was being towed away by a black BMW.

Police say they were able to track the BMW, that also had cloned registration plates, travelling south on the A1.

Around 45 minutes later, officers stopped the vehicle and caravan on the M1 after it left the A1 at Hook Moor Interchange near Garforth.

Police said they were "staggered" to find a schoolboy sitting at the wheel.

On Facebook the caravan owner claimed she returned to the site just in time to see it being hitched up to the vehicle and that thieves removed its tracking device.

She wrote that the caravan had 'all the up to date security', and she warned: "All I can say is that for those who leave their pets in their caravan whilst they go out, please DON'T! Thank God ours was with us safe."

After the vehicle was pulled over, a police spokesperson said: "A search of the car also revealed equipment typically used by suspects to carry out thefts and a selection of vehicle registration plates."