Car seized after report of driver with child in lap

A vehicle has been seized after police followed up on a report that a child was spotted sitting on a driver's lap while travelling on a motorway.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Thames Valley Police (TVP) said a BMW had been seen "swerving" between lanes on the M4.

Officers quickly located the car, which was uninsured, and found a parent in the backseat with another child. The force said there were no child seats in the car.

TVP said officers had not seen the child on the driver's lap themselves, but had acted on the report as "one report in these circumstances is one too many".

The force said that "multiple tickets" had been issued and the driver had been reported to court.

"A referral was also made to child safeguarding as it usually is when children are not secured correctly in a vehicle," it said.

TVP said that "to top things off", the driver had decided to buy insurance online while being taken off the motorway.

"But in one final poor decision decided to set the policy to start 15 minutes after they were stopped," the post read.