A GRANDFATHER who fell victim to the airport snow chaos while trying to take his wife to catch a Christmas holiday flight, spent three days and nights driving around the South, trying to find his way home.
The 72-year-old man was eventually found on Christmas Day in Oxford, still at the wheel of his Peugeot 307, when he triggered a police camera and was flagged down by officers.
Mohammed Bellazrak spent three days trying to find his way home to Wiltshire from Gatwick Airport, while his family reported him missing to the police. His wife’sflight had been diverted from Heathrow.
Police in Wiltshire asked neighbouring forces to look for the Moroccan-born motorist, after he vanished on December 23.
CCTV footage showed him leaving Gatwick at 8pm on Thursday, but there the trail ran cold.
That was until officers in the Thames Valley fed his car details into the police automatic number plate recognition computer.
They discovered cameras had recorded the OAP driving around numerous towns in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
“He was taken to Oxford police station to await the arrival of relatives who drove him safely back home,” said Sgt Jo Spencer.
Before Oxford, the previous ANPR ‘hit’ was in High Wycombe at 6pm on Christmas Eve, and fears for the OAP’s safety were beginning to increase.
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