POLICE today renewed an appeal for witnesses or anyone with any information following the abduction of a lorry driver who was dumped in Oxfordshire and the theft of his lorry and load of televisions.

Northamptonshire Police now has more information about the incident and is updating its initial appeals of last week.

A 48-year-old Polish lorry driver was approached by three white males at the Rothersthorpe service station on the M1 northbound in Northamptonshire between 3.45pm and 4pm on Thursday, September. 29 They threatened him with a gun and drove him in his lorry along Danescamp Way to Mereway and the A45 dual carriageway, along Lumbertubs Way in Northampton and on to the A43 Kettering Road, passing Moulton before stopping in the first layby past the garage services.

In this layby, the driver was taken from his lorry and put into a white Transit van whilst the offenders stole his Iveco curtain-sided lorry which contained 32 pallets of Samsung televisions.

The victim was driven around in the Transit van for a number of hours before being abandoned at about 12.30am on Friday on the A43, about half a mile from the Baynards Green/Cherwell Valley services in Oxfordshire. 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 on Thursday 28 September on Thorp Langton Road, just outside Wellham, in Leicestershire. It is likely to have travelled via Kettering and Corby to Leicestershire.

The offenders, who were three white males, possibly with Northern accents, are believed to have used a bright red 'sporty'-looking car as well as the white Transit van which had a door on the offside but not on the nearside.

Detectives are appealing for:

  • Anyone who witnessed the lorry theft and abduction at the northbound Rothersthorpe Services between 3.45pm and 4pm on Thursday 28 September
  • Anyone who saw the lorry, van and possibly the red sporty car in the layby on the A43 at Moulton
  • Anyone who saw the stolen lorry, which had a white Iveco cab towing a navy blue TIP curtain sided trailer, before or as it was dumped in Leicestershire at 7.30pm on Thursday 28 September. This may have been travelling alongside the red sporty car
  • Anyone who knows the whereabouts of the load of stolen TVs, including anyone who may be sold TVs in suspicious circumstances. The load consisted of Samsung televisions including: 69 x 32ins TVs; 50 x 40ins TVs, 2 x 42ins plasma TVs and 90 x 32 ins TVs
  • Anyone who saw the lorry driver being abandoned in the area of the Cherwell Valley Services on the A43 in the early hours of Friday, September 29 - he is a white man, about 5ft 10in tall and of a 'strong' build, with a bushy moustache, who was 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 contact Northamptonshire Police on 08453 700700 or, if you would prefer to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.