When builder Jarek Luszcz had the van he had only bought two months ago stolen from outside his house in broad daylight he feared he might never see it again.

Luckily, Jarek, who runs J.L. Building Construction in Gravesend had technology on his side as he had recently fitted RAC Telematics ‘black boxes’ to all of his vans.

After it was stolen on Tuesday, February 11, he went inside, turned on his computer and logged on to see the Vauxhall Vivaro van’s dot on the map 30 miles away in Sittingbourne.

Four hours after the van was reported stolen, the police had located it in Victoria Road, Sittingbourne, in the place the telematics box had tracked it to.

Jarek, who employs nine builders, said: “I was gutted when I realised the van had been stolen from outside my house.

"It had only been parked there for 45 minutes over lunchtime when it was taken.

"At first I thought it was a typical builder’s joke, but I soon realised it wasn’t.

“I hadn’t even had the van long enough to put my company name on it. I’ve never had a vehicle stolen before so it was really upsetting.”

RAC Telematics is currently only available to business customers, but the technology is set to be rolled out to the consumer market later this month.

RAC Insurance director Kerry Michael said: “Telematics is the latest innovation in vehicle tracking and puts business owners in control of managing vehicles and their drivers, something which has been very much borne out in this case."