A BANNED driver was caught taking a stolen caravan out of Devon after police stopped him for drug driving on the M5.

Lee Oliver was towing the caravan which had been stolen from Buckfastleigh behind a Transit van which had been taken from Plymouth shortly before.

A worried motorist spotted him driving erratically and police found he had three times over the safe limit for cannabis after pulling him over near Gloucester.

He has never had a licence, has 17 previous convictions for driving while disqualified, and was driving uninsured on false plates.

He told police he hadn’t stolen either the van or the caravan but had been told by a friend he could make easy money by driving them to Birmingham.

They have both been returned to their owners undamaged but they are out of pocket for storage fees and the cost of the petrol to go and fetch them.

Oliver, aged 50, of Monument Street, Plymouth, admitted handling stolen goods and driving while disqualified when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court.

Other related offences of drug driving and having no insurance are being dealt with by magistrates in Gloucester.

He was banned from driving for 18 months, ordered to do 100 hours unpaid community work with five days of rehabilitation activities and to pay £225 costs by Recorder Miss Kate Brunner.

She told him he was lucky not to be going to jail because he has previous convictions for 133 offences including numerous thefts, burglaries and driving matters.

She said: ‘You have made dishonesty a way of life.’

Mr Ryan Murray, prosecuting, said the Transit was stolen from Plymouth and the caravan from a park on the outskirts of Buckfastleigh in the two days before they were stopped on December 7 last year.

He said a motorist alerted Avon and Somerset police to erratic driving on the M5 northbound and Oliver was stopped near junction 9 at Tewkesbury 7.20 pm.

A small amount of cannabis was found on him and a blood test showed him to be three times over the drug driving limit. He said he agreed to drive North for ‘easy money’ and knew the caravan was stolen but thought the Transit belonged to a friend.

He has 26 convictions for 133 offences including 17 for driving while disqualified and served a five year jail term for burglary in 2015.

Mr Ali Rafati, defending, said Oliver is not being prosecuted for taking or stealing either vehicle and has no motoring convictions for more than a decade.

He said he lost all his belongings, including identity documents, when a caravan where he had been living was burned to the ground while he was last in prison.

He was born in Germany and has been unable to get a copy of his birth certificate which had prevented him from working legitimately. He hopes to overcome this problem with the help of probation.