Delivery man arrested over £2.5million passport theft as van driver pulled up to buy chocolate

A delivery man has been arrested over the theft of thousands of British passports worth £2.5million while the driver parked up to buy chocolate.

Greater Manchester police said a 48-year-old man had been arrested over the theft. Sources revealed he was the delivery man in the vehicle at the time of the hijacking.

The man was left alone when his colleague - the driver - stopped to buy a paper and chocolate bar from a shop near Oldham.

He told police thieves then forced their way into the vehicle, made him put his head down, and drove off.

They are believed to have stopped the van a short distance later before making off with 24 parcels containing around  3,000 blank passports worth £2.5million on the black market.

The incident on Monday triggered a major security inquiry.

.A police spokesman said: 'A man from Oldham was arrested this morning on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery and is currently in police custody.'

The documents were being transported in a non-armoured white Citroen van from Oldham in Greater Manchester, to London when the thieves struck.

Valuable: The 3M factory in Oldham where the passports were produced

Experts warned the theft of the 3,000 passports and visas, which were destined for British embassies abroad, had handed a 'real coup' to terrorists, illegal immigrants and fraudsters.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office(FCO), which was in charge of the delivery, admitted it was the latest in a string of serious security breaches by the Government.

Passports sent within the UK are normally transported in armoured vehicles, with drivers banned from making unauthorised stops.

But the FCO said it had never used armoured vehicles to carry documents intended for foreign destinations as they were inflexible and expensive.

It now faces demands for a full inquiry into the procedure.