Grandfather spent three days lost on motorway trying to get home

A grandfather who fell victim to the airport snow chaos after dropping his wife off at Gatwick airport spent three days lost on the M4 trying to find his way back to Wiltshire. The 72-year-old man was eventually found on Christmas Day, still at the wheel of his Peugeot 307, when he triggered a police camera and was flagged down by officers. Disorientated Mohammed Bellazrak spent three days trying to find his way home to Wiltshire from Gatwick Airport, while his worried family reported him missing to the police. Police in Wiltshire asked colleagues in neighbouring forces to keep an eye open for the Moroccan-born motorist, after he vanished on December 23. CCTV footage showed him leaving Gatwick airport 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 in numerous towns in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Sergeant Jo Spencer, who led the hunt for the missing pensioner, took up the story. "It appears that Mrs Bellazrak was deposited safely at Gatwick by her husband and she flew off on holiday, unaware of the drama involving her husband which was to follow. Mr Bellazrak was seen on a CCTV camera leaving Gatwick at about 8pm on December 23, presumably to drive home to Trowbridge, a journey which should have taken a couple of hours.



"However, he didn't arrive and his anxious relatives eventually called the police when they realised he had disappeared. They were worried he might have had an accident or something like that," said Sgt. Spencer. "We contacted other forces with no success and then asked for the ANPR systems to be activated to see if anyone spotted the number plate CF53 BHE, the car in which Mr Bellazrak was known to have been when he left Gatwick for the 70 mile journey home. We were surprised to discover that ANPR cameras had recorded him in Bracknell, Wokingham, Burnham and High Wycombe - all presumably attempts at finding his way from Gatwick to Wiltshire. The last ANPR 'hit' we had showed him at about 6pm on Christmas eve in Hiugh Wycombe but then the trail went cold again," she added. We put out press appeals hoping that local radio stations might broadcast details of his car and that someone would come forward to say where he was."

However, no-one came forward and fears for the OAP's safety increased. Mr Bellazrak's ordeal finally ended at 2pm on Christmas Day when his car number plate activated an ANPR camera in a Thames Valley Police patrol car in Abingdon Road, Oxford - and this time officers were able to flag him down. "He was taken to Oxford police station to await the arrival of relatives who drove him safely back home," said Sgt. Spencer. "It is an amazing but very sad story and we are very pleased that it had a happy ending on Christmas afternoon. Goodness knows how much petrol he must have got through and how many miles he travelled in his quest to find the way home. We will be speaking to Mr Bellazrak when he has had a good rest, to see what happened and whether he drove all night or stopped to sleep somewhere."