A Land Rover, which was stolen in 'less than a minute', has been recovered by police and returned to owners.

Police recovered the Land Rover Freelander after it was stolen earlier this morning (June 30) from Worsthorne..

Officers have now appealed to Land Rover owners to be vigilant and use extra security precautions due to the number of thefts of the keyless vehicles.

A spokesperson for the police said: “Your East Division Rural Task Force have this afternoon recovered this stolen Land Rover Freelander.

“It was stolen without keys in the early hours of the morning from the Worsthorne area. CCTV from the theft shows the Freelander was stolen within one minute.

“Extensive CCTV enquiries and assistance from members of the public lead to the recovery with one very happy owner.

“We have started to see an increase of keyless thefts of Land Rover Freelanders so please consider extra security precautions as the thieves are bypassing the vehicles standard security.

“A steering lock is an excellent security tool.”