POLICE are appealing for help after a gang kidnapped a Polish lorry driver on the M1 and dumped him in Oxfordshire today.

At about 3pm yesterday, the 48-year-old lorry driver was approached by three white men at the Rothersthorpe service station on the M1 northbound in Northamptonshire.

They threatened him with a gun and made him get into a white Transit van whilst they stole his Iveco curtain-sided lorry which contained 32 pallets of plasma televisions.

The victim was driven around in the van for a number of hours before being dropped off at about 12.30am today on the A43 road about half-a-mile from the M40 Cherwell Valley services.

Police said he walked to the services where the police were called. The victim was uninjured in the incident.

The stolen lorry, minus its load of TVs, was found on fire at about 7.30pm last night on Thorp Langton Road, just outside Wellham, in Leicestershire.

Police said the offenders were three white males, possibly with Northern accents.

A spokesman for Northamptonshire police said they were appealing for information from:

  • Anyone who witnessed the abduction and lorry theft at the northbound Rothersthorpe Services about 3pm yesterday
  • Anyone who saw the stolen lorry (which had PIP in black letters on both curtain sides) before or as it was dumped in Leicestershire yesterday
  • Anyone who knows the whereabouts of the load of plasma TVs, including anyone who may be sold TVs in suspicious circumstances
  • Anyone who saw the lorry driver being abandoned in the area of the Cherwell Valley Services in the early hours of today - he is a white man, about 5ft 10ins tall and of a 'strong' build, with a bushy moustache, wearing a green denim waistcoat, blue socks and black leather clogs
  • Anyone with any information about the offenders.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Northamptonshire Police on 08453 700700 or, if you would prefer to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.