NUMBER plate recognition is a useful tool for all police forces these days but for one ex-bobby it was his own memory which proved correct.

Motoring enthusiast Gareth Owen could scarcely believe his eyes when he visited the annual Classic Car Show at Birmingham's NEC, for there, among the 3,000 vehicles on display, was the mini-van he used to drive when he was an officer in Holywell 40 years ago.

Gareth, from Trelogan, visits the show every year and was wandering around the dozens of stands with his daughter Siwan when he spotted the blue and white van on the Police Car UK stand.

"North Wales Police took delivery of a lot of the vans in 1978, when I was stationed in Holywell and all their numbers started with BMA," he said.

"We had two of them and I remembered that the van was used at Greenfield.

That was confirmed in the written information displayed alongside the van.

"I remembered the number - BMA766S - because the number of one of the officers who drove it, Will Hay, was 766," he said. "

Gareth, who also served in Benllech, Porthmadog and Rhyl, left Holywell in 1980 when the van was still in use and he retired in 2007.

The current owner lives in the South of England and the information sheet described how it had been auctioned off several times after covering 60,000 miles in its two years with the police.

When the current owner found it in Stockton-on-Tees in 2010 it was in a terrible condition, with the wrong engine and faulty wiring which caused it to catch fire. It broke down as he drove it home.

He then installed the correct 850cc engine and all the accurate police fittings and accessories, and the owner has visited North Wales in it.

His information board said that the mini-vans were a lot more versatile than cars and were particularly popular with rural forces.

"Their load areas were used to carry everything from prisoners to stolen property and dead deer," he added.

"The owner had obviously done a lot of research but I couldn't believe it after all these years," said Gareth.