Man caught behind wheel of £40,000 Range Rover was ‘looking after it for someone’

A Bolton man arrested for driving a stolen vehicle has said he was only looking after it for someone else in exchange for fifty quid.

Asrear Zulifqar, 39, was spotted driving the £40,000 Range Rover on Back Lever Edge Lane in March.

He was pulled over by police after driving down a road with a non-entry sign, and attempted to flee on foot.

Zulifqar was caught a short while later, and arresting officers discovered the car had been stolen three days earlier.

Zulifqar, of Calvert Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to receiving the stolen Ranger Rover and having no licence or insurance.

But he insisted the owner had asked him to take care of the vehicle for one night in return for £50.

When police spotted him, Zulifqar had been moving the Range Rover to a safe place, his defence solicitor Michael Garstang argued.

Zulifqar would not reveal the identities of the people who had lent him the car.

“He knows that if he were to disclose then his life would not be worth living and his family would be in jeopardy,” Mr. Garstang stated.

The case has been adjourned and Zulifqar will be sentenced at Wigan Magistrates’ Court on October 7.