A CARAVAN owner peered out of his front window to see his prize holiday home being carted off up the road.

Alex Batchelor and a handful of friends had hooked the caravan up to an Isuzu Trooper they had taken from another address the day before and sneaked off with it.

But the 21-year-old lost his nerve when he saw the caravan owner giving chase, and dumped it and the four-by-four vehicle 100 yards down the road.

Batchelor, of Chestnut Drive, Hinton, Hereford, appeared at Droitwich Magistrates Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to taking the car without the owner's consent and stealing the caravan.

Suzanne Llewellyn, prosecuting, said the caravan theft took place in Bredon, near Pershore, on Tuesday, October 16.

"The man (caravan owner) heard a noise and looked out of his window to see a space where his caravan should have been," Mrs Llewellyn said.

She said the man told his wife to phone the police while he ran outside, jumped into his vehicle, and followed the caravan along Blenheim Drive up to the junction of Cheltenham Road.

By this time, Batchelor had abandoned the D-registered Isuzu and its load and run off towards Aston Cross.

The caravan's owner guarded the vehicles until the police arrived.

Philip Cornell, defending Batchelor, said that although he was 21, he behaved like a 15 or 16-year-old, and had fallen in with the wrong crowd living on a caravan site in Hereford.

"They took the vehicle from near where this caravan was and told him to drive it. He didn't know the vehicle had been taken but did know the caravan had," he said.

"He drove it 100 yards and then stopped."

Mrs Llewellyn said Batchelor, told the police he didn't want to do it, but had been told to do so.

Batchelor had his case adjourned to Hereford Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, December 12, for pre-sentence reports to be prepared.