POLICE officers have been praised for recovering a stolen caravan and arresting the suspected thief within 48 hours of the crime.

An investigation was launched after a caravan was reported stolen from the Ponteland area on Monday.

Local officers were carrying out CCTV enquiries to trace the caravan and those responsible for the theft when, shortly after 7pm yesterday, a witness reported seeing a caravan matching the description in the Druridge Bay area earlier in the day.

Officers from the Motor Patrols Op Dragoon Team were deployed to search the area and located the caravan and had a suspect in handcuffs within an hour.

The caravan was seized by police and the 32-year-old suspect was taken into custody, where he currently remains.

Chief Inspector Sam Rennison, of Northumbria Police’s Motor Patrols Department, said: “This was a fantastic result by all the officers involved.

"Their quick thinking and detailed search has resulted in an arrest and the suspected caravan seized – it was community policing at its best.

“The officers were working on little intelligence but were able to use their local knowledge of the area to conduct a quick yet thorough search, great work by everyone involved.

“Anyone found to be involved, or suspected to be involved, in any form of criminality will see the same dedicated and swift response.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Northumbria Police on 101 or via the Tell Us Something page of their website, quoting reference number 1161 24/06/20.