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."

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They added: "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."

Sgt Paul Cording, of North Yorkshire police, said on X: “Even after over 23 years’ service, you come across things that you struggle to comprehend. Like yesterday when some great fast-track work from the team identified a recently stolen caravan being towed by a vehicle on false plates, but then to find the driver was only 11 years old.”

  • A 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 inquiries to be carried out.