POLICE IN ANTRIM have been praised for spotting a stolen tractor on a routine patrol yesterday.

The PSNI said officers suspected that the vehicle had been stolen as it was being driven late at night, at around 10pm, and that they followed it into an an industrial estate on the Seven Mile Straight.

The driver of the tractor fled on foot after seeing police, causing the unmanned vehicle to ram through a metal fence, police said.

Officers soon after stopped a blue Peugeot car speeding away from the area and arrested its driver.

Police established that the New Holland tractor had been stolen, along with a second tractor, from commercial premises on the Michelin Road in Mallusk earlier that evening.

The owners of the tractors were unaware that the vehicles had been robbed.

The second tractor is still outstanding and police have asked local landowners to report any sightings of agricultural machinery being driven at unusual times.

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