A dispute over the ownership of a caravan stolen in the UK has been settled in the Manx courts.

Steven Basford had purchased the Abbey Adventura 340 Vogue caravan in 2005 and stored it at his home in Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland.

But in July 2007 he reported the theft of the vehicle to Cleveland police.

Then in September last year, Manx police received information that an Abbey Adventura Caravan was being advertised for sale for £3,500 on manx.net.

The man who contacted the police had been in touch with Christopher Harris, who identified himself as the owner and had been to visit the caravan which was stored at Andreas airfield.

He had checked its VIN number on a caravan registration and identification website and discovered the vehicle to be stolen.

The vehicle was impounded by police who launched an investigation.

Mr Basford visited the island to identify his stolen vehicle. He took with him the original set of keys which still fitted the caravan toilet locker, the wet locker and the front compartment although the locks to the main door had been changed.

Mr Harris told the police that he had purchased the Abbey Adventura in 2013 for £4,500 from a farmer on the A69 in Hexham after seeing it advertised in the Yellow Pages.

He said he had saved hard and brought the caravan to the Isle of Man as a place for visitors to stay and stored it at Clucas’s Laundry, Tromode, and later at the airfield.

Mr Harris said he had since returned to the farm at Haddon on the Wall where he says he purchased the caravan but the people he had bought it from had moved on.

No criminal charges have been brought against anyone in connection with the theft, the court heard.

In a court judgment, Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes found that Mr Basford was the rightful owner of the Abbey Adventura.

She said that Mr Harris had not provided any evidence to support his legitimate claim to the caravan.

He had not carried out any basic checks to confirm the identity of the owner at the time he acquired it and had he done so, as the man who originally contacted the police did in 2016, those checks would have revealed that the caravan was stolen from Mr Basford in 2007.