Man takes car on six-day test drive

An Australian who took a new car on a 1,988 mile six-day test drive from the city to the outback has been arrested, police said on today.

The 30-year-old convinced a car dealer in the southeastern city of Melbourne to lend him a A$40,000 (£19,000) Honda Accord sedan last Friday and drove the equivalent of London to Istanbul before he was arrested near the town of Tennant Creek, deep in the outback of the Northern Territory.

"He drove from Melbourne to Adelaide to Alice Springs," Tennant Creek police Constable James Gray-Spence said. He said the man was arrested without incident at a road block on his way north to Darwin after he failed to pay for fuel at a hamlet.

The test drive was the longest known to Australian police and topped a 500km theft on New Zealand's South Island in 2006. "I think we've topped that with the 3,000 km mark," Gray-Spence said.

Melbourne car yard owner Ian McKenzie said the man would have had to have been in the car all day, every day to reach Tennant Creek.

The man was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of property and will appear in court later today.